


Angel (Haikyuu!!)

by REBORN_GODDESS



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angels, Aobajousai, Cats, Champion - Freeform, Child Prodigy, Childhood Sweethearts, Crows, Eagles, F/F, F/M, Foxes, Friendship, Fukurodani - Freeform, Gen, Haikyuu - Freeform, Inarizaki, Japan, Johzenji, Karasuno, M/M, Ms Nationals, Multi, Nekoma, Original Female Character - Freeform, Owls, Reverse Harem, Shiratorizawa, Smut, Sports, Teamwork, Volleyball, female oc - Freeform, high school sweethearts, various x fem! OC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:54:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 16
Words: 32,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29517684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/REBORN_GODDESS/pseuds/REBORN_GODDESS
Summary: "It's not over until the ball hits the ground"♥︎♥︎♥︎"Be thankful for what you are now, and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow""We can't give up! Not after we've gone this far!"♥︎♥︎♥︎♡Various x !female!OC♡♥︎♥︎♥︎Erika Koume is known as the queen of volleyball throughout Japan, having played nationals many times in middle school and being quite popular with a lot of people in general.When Erika works to improve both teams, everyone starts to take a real liking to her and some even develop feelings towards her.How will this turn out for everyone? What will go behind the scenes in these games? Who will win her heart in the end?Read the rest to find out.♥︎♥︎♥︎Most characters mentioned are aged 16-18+♥︎♥︎♥︎⚫︎Disclaimer⚫︎I do not own Haikyuu.All characters and the franchise itself rightfully belongs to Haruichi Furudate.I only own my OC's and the (not so creative) plot.♥︎♥︎♥︎Started: 3/11/2020Completed: TBD
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Original Female Character(s), Azumane Asahi/Original Female Character(s), Bokuto Koutarou/Original Female Character(s), Haiba Lev/Original Female Character(s), Hanamaki Takahiro/Original Female Character(s), Hoshiumi Kourai/Original Female Character(s), Inuoka Sou/Original Female Character(s), Iwaizumi Hajime/Original Female Character(s), Kageyama Tobio/Original Female Character(s), Kindaichi Yuutarou/Original Female Character(s), Kita Shinsuke/Original Female Character(s), Kozume Kenma/Original Female Character(s), Kunimi Akira/Original Female Character(s), Kuroo Tetsurou/Original Female Character(s), Kyoutani Kentarou/Original Female Character(s), Matsukawa Issei/Original Female Character(s), Miya Atsumu/Original Female Character(s), Miya Osamu/Original Female Character(s), Nishinoya Yuu/Original Female Character(s), Oikawa Tooru/Original Female Character(s), Sakusa Kiyoomi/Original Female Character(s), Sawamura Daichi/Original Female Character(s), Semi Eita/Original Female Character(s), Shimizu Kiyoko/Tanaka Ryuunosuke, Sugawara Koushi/Original Female Character(s), Suna Rintarou/Original Female Character(s), Tanaka Ryuunosuke/Original Female Character(s), Tendou Satori/Original Female Character(s), Terushima Yuuji/Original Female Character(s), Tsukishima Kei/Original Female Character(s), Ukai Keishin/Original Female Character(s), Ushijima Wakatoshi/Original Female Character(s), Yahaba Shigeru/Original Female Character(s), Yaku Morisuke/Original Female Character(s), Yamaguchi Tadashi/Original Female Character(s), Yamamoto Taketora/Various
Comments: 5
Kudos: 11





	1. DISCLAIMER

💗═══════════════════💗

"The future belongs to those who believe in their dreams"

💗═══════════════════💗

"You're allowed to scream. You're allowed to cry. But do not give up"

"She's so hot and amazing! Let's win this match to win her heart"

💗═══════════════════💗

Hello ladies and gentlemen! Fangirls and fanboys! Welcome to my 'Haikyuu' various x !fem!OC fanfic 'Angel'!

I do not in anyway own 'Haikyuu' content (such as plot, characters, etc.) as all rights remain to Haruichi Furudate nor the other anime/manga referenced in this fanfic. The only things I own are this (not very original) plot and my OC's.

Cover and banner credit:  
chiiekki (on Wattpad)  
BABY MAE! I CAN'T THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR THIS BEAUTIFUL COVER AND BANNER THAT YOU'VE CREATED FOR ME! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH BABY GIRL! I HOPE YOU HAVE A DAY/NIGHT AS AMAZING AS YOURSELF!

Most of the characters are 16-18+ as there is sexual content between certain scenes.

💗═══════════════════💗

This book is rated M(+18) for the following (And is not limited to) reasons:

This book will contain:

Mature themes such as original characters, anime/manga plot and spoilers, smut, variety of kinks, etc., teenage romance, angst, drama, abuse, abusive/toxic relationships and more.

I personally do not romanticize not glorify any of these triggering/dark/sensitive subjects, so please don't report if you think I do, because I really don't.

Do not post any hate comments on certain characters or certain ships otherwise they will be deleted.

💗═══════════════════💗

"Life is boring if you don't challenge yourself"

"Let's win this! Show them we're not the wingless crows"

💗═══════════════════💗

𝐃𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒═══════════════════════

minishoyo, sunniethebakubean, HONEYACHI, 1800SADOMASOCHIST, BOTTOMKINKS, ZENNIKO, toorukawass, -DISTORTEDPETALS, KATSUKIATTO, OVERHAVL, URAVITSY, VIRI-FORTISSIMI, -lackadaisical, moonietoonz, 1-800-POCKY, N0YACULT, PH0BIA--, KIYALLUA, -MADSUKII, lost_sunshine_, Blueberrythecutie, HeiressofHufflepuff, sasunekoi, hawxsy, tobiosrice, _Music-Is-Art_

(aka my babes on Wattpad)

💗═══════════════════💗

!WARNING!

Updates will be slow for a while! So please be patient with me.

Thank you for understanding!

Please enjoy 'Angel'


	2. Erika Koume-Character Bio

Character info:

Full name:

Erika Fujisaki/Uyeno (formerly)  
Erika Koume (legally)

Also known as:

Eri  
Rika  
Riri  
Ms. Nationals  
Nationals Beauty  
Volleyball Queen  
Queen Of The Court  
Princess  
Queen  
Beauty  
Sweetheart  
Darling  
Hot stuff  
And more

Gender: female

Face claim:

Lucy Heartfilia from Fairy Tail

Family:

Mayu Fujisaki (biological mother)✝️  
Yasuo Uyeno (biological father)✝️  
Misato Kuno (stepmother)✝️

Etsuko Koume (younger biological sister)  
Kameko Koume (younger half sister)

Nashiro (pet snow white husky puppy)  
Kurona (pet pitch black kitten)  
Haru (black and white cat)  
Hiro (ginger cat)

Kazuki Fujisaki (maternal uncle)  
Hoshimi Fujisaki (maternal aunt)  
Kayoko Fujisaki (maternal aunt)✝️

Konomi Uyeno (paternal aunt)  
Unnamed grand uncle (paternal grand uncle)✝️  
Unnamed grandmother (paternal grandmother)

Kuma Koume (adoptive mother)  
Isamu Koume (adoptive father)

Likes:

+Volleyball  
+Stars  
+Astrology  
+Galaxy designs  
+Anime  
+Manga  
+Cartoons  
+Horror movies and books  
+Her friends  
+Her childhood friends  
+Her sisters (when they're not driving her crazy)  
+Her birth parents  
+Her pets  
+Meat (mainly chicken)  
+Chocolate (or any desserts that include it)  
+Milkshakes and flavored milks  
+Sleeping in  
+Melanie Martinez  
+Ariana Grande  
+Music (with Melanie Martinez and Ariana Grande being her favorite artists)  
+Art  
+Multicolored pens  
+Magic  
+Witchcraft  
+Magical girl anime and cartoons

Dislikes:

-Stormy, rainy and cloudy weather  
-Lightning and thunder  
-Vegetables (makes an exception for some)  
-Betrayal  
-Backstabbing  
-Bullying  
-Bullies  
-Bad people  
-Greedy/money loving people  
-Her adoptive family  
-Her adoptive parents  
-Her stepmother  
-Vegetables (makes an exception for a few)  
-Fizzy drinks/sodas  
-Coffee  
-Being bossed around

Personality:

Erika is seen as a shy and introverted person who barely talks to people unless they speak to her first, are her friends or someone she knows very well.

To most, she will come off as aloof, rude and emotionless as she keeps a stoic and/or "resting bitch face", and she seems more intimidating than she actually is.

With her tomboy and athletic exterior, she's a very tough and brave whenever it comes to most scary challenges (such as great heights, dangerous activities and more), being very knowledgeable in activities such as rock climbing, etc. (due to spending most of her childhood with her father doing these kind of activities).

When people really get to know her, they see she is a kind and gentle soul who's heart had been broken way too many times.

Despite being betrayed and hurt by certain people, she does not ever stop being kind but she will stand up for herself or anyone else whenever necessary.

Thanks to her stepmothers emotional abuse and controlling nature, she developed a rather rebellious side to her showing that she knows how to speak her mind whenever needed and knowing the right words to say at the right time (but this doesn't always work out for her).

Due to her adoptive families extremely high expectations and threats of abandoning Etsuko and Kameko, Erika sometimes overworks herself to the point of illness and exhaustion and doesn't give herself any rest or any breaks due to constant fear and panic of not "doing" or "being" enough.

After being adopted by the Koume family, their abusive personalities towards her and her sisters changed her a lot for better and worse.

While she grew more mature, understanding and open minded for her age and more protective of the people around her, it also came with a price of mild anxiety along with the contradictory of fear of abandonment and anyone getting close to her.

After being betrayed by her so called friends and teammates and bullied in middle school, she grew even quieter in personality, which had helped her observe, listen and see things and even helped her become more aware of not just the people around her but herself as well.

Despite being in such a stressful and toxic household and having being bullied and betrayed in the past, Erika still carries on fighting for everyone around her and what she believes in. She never gives up even if she wanted too and continues to fight and train to the best of her abilities.

Erika has high confidence in her abilities as a volleyball player and can play in any position as needed for herself and her team, even having high levels of intelligence (even though she doesn't always show it in her school work) and is very knowledgeable in a vast amount of things (such as death, detective shows, etc.). Despite being very intelligent and bright, she can easily lose focus at times and space out (such as in school or matches when she tries to block out her nerve wracking thoughts) and this causes people to get rather frustrated with her sometimes.

She is also shown to have a flirtatious and teasing side of herself, whenever she's with her friends (and love interests too). She has a sense of humor differing with the different people around her and has a big heart and caring side towards everyone she meets.

She always acts kindly and politely towards strangers as she knows to not judge a book by their cover and is very kind and professional towards her fans and the people who've seen her on TV, showing she has a warm, humble and down to earth feeling to her which makes her so likable to a lot of people.

When she finally makes friends, she is extremely loyal and caring towards them. Even attentive towards her teammates and helping them with their weaknesses, she's good at listening to people and giving really good advice as well.

Despite those sweet and likable traits in Erika, she is also very sassy and has a lot of attitude in her personality, not being afraid to say what is on her mind and it can sometimes get her into trouble. She's also seen to roast others with ease, speak with a lot of attitude and sarcasm at times and even telling someone the truth even if they don't want to hear it.

She's also seen to be a very fun and bubbly person to be around whenever she's playing volleyball, video games and more things with people.

Background:

Erika birth parents are Mayu Fujisaki (a literature enthusiast who wanted to write a novel) and her father Yasuo Uyeno (a volleyball and rugby champion who retired from the Japanese team), who had two daughters and lived on Okinawa for a few years.

But when Erika was five and her sister, Etsuko was four, her parents went through a divorce due their marriage and their relationship being strained. Their mother took custody of the little girls and they continued to live their life as normal while they still visited their father.

When their mothers younger sister Kayoko had fallen ill, she had passed the disease onto Mayu and they barely had a few months to live. When Kayoko had died first, it left Mayu in grief and she died shortly after.

Her death was quite hard on Erika and Etsuko as they had just moved in with their father and were still adapting to life as it was.

Their father, Yasuo took them in his care, even though he was a very strict and bossy man (due to many years of military training), he loved and cared for them deeply. He always took them on fun activities and adventures such as camping, rock climbing and more activities.

Erika's father lived in the same neighborhood as Toru Oikawa, they developed a very close friendship with Hajime Iwaizumi with their love on volleyball and more adventures together.

Yasuo had many girlfriends but most of their relationships never worked out, as some of the women were horrible to both Erika and Etsuko.

A few years later, Yasuo met Misato Kuno and a strong relationship between them bloomed between the both of them and the little girls as well.

Whenever the girls went to Misato's home, they played with their next door neighbors being Kenma Kozume and Tetsuro Kuroo as they played volleyball and video games together with them.

At first, Misato was a very kind and generous woman who treated Erika and Etsuko as if they were her own daughters, doing fun mother daughter activities and playing volleyball with them.

When Yasuo and Misato had gotten married, Erika and Etsuko, things started to change for the worse. Misato started to become more controlling of Erika and Etsuko, even showing a sadistically strict side towards her and her family having passive aggressive feeling towards her.

This caused Erika to become a bit more rebellious towards her even though she thought it was normal at first, but when she found out it wasn't she became angry with her.

Soon Misato gave birth to Kameko and changed back to her old personality, being less controlling and mean towards Erika and Etsuko.

At school, Erika met Wakatoshi Ushijima and bonded over volleyball with him and they instantly became friends.

Erika at school had been playing volleyball professionally ever since she was young, with her father teaching her everything he knew and she played against many teams in her school which earned her quite a lot of fame.

But when Erika was 12, Etsuko was 11 and Kameko had barely turned 1, they had received news that Yasuo and Misato were killed in a car crash as they went to buy some groceries.

This lead to fights between their different families, with their stepmothers and fathers family mainly wanting to take in Kameko as they wanted nothing to do with Erika and Etsuko, and Erika and Etsuko's mother's family wanting to take in the both of them but wanting nothing to do with Kameko.

Not wanting to be separated from each other, Erika and Etsuko were put into the foster care system until a solution would be found where all three sisters could move in together and live peacefully.

Near the foster home, Erika met the Miya twins and Aran Ojiro as they bonded over their love for volleyball and they all became friends with her and her sister Etsuko.

One day, when Erika was playing volleyball outside in the foster care building garden with the other children, she showed a lot of skill and talent that not many were capable of at her age. This caught the eye of two famous volleyball players, Isamu and Kuma Koume, who were looking to adopt a child (as they couldn't have one of their own) and make them their successor.

They talked with Erika and told her she wanted their successor if they adopted her, she agreed on their terms only if they agreed to adopt Etsuko and Kameko as well.

They agreed on her terms and adopted the three sisters, taking them into the Koume family.

Things took a worse when they started shoving expectations and work down Erika's throat constantly and put her in the middle school with the best reputation for volleyball, Sakurako Junior High.

Sakurako Junior High was close to Kitigawa First, as she visited Toru Oikawa, Hajime Iwaizumi, Tobio Kageyama and more teammates often after school and practiced volleyball together.

In school, Erika was bullied quite a lot by male and female students for being "weird" and "different". She made friends with her volleyball team and she started to get them as far into nationals for three years in a row, earning the nickname "Ms Nationals", "Nationals Beauty", etc.

When she had lost their third year championship in Nationals, Erika broke down into tears and heard her teammates disappointment in her as they talked about her behind her back and backstabbed her, leading her to become afraid of trusting people in the process and temporarily quitting volleyball for a while (which angered her adoptive parents).

Erika entered into Karasuno High to help the teams go to Nationals to prove her worth to her adopted parents yet again, showing her strength and perseverance to carry on and moving forward.

Love interests:

(Not in order)

(More will be added in as the story progresses)

Karasuno:

Asahi Azumane  
Chikara Ennoshita  
Shoyo Hinata  
Tobio Kageyama  
Yu Nishinoya  
Daichi Sawamura  
Kiyoko Shimizu  
Koshi Sugawara  
Ryunosuke Tanaka  
Kei Tsukishima  
Hitoka Yachi  
Tadashi Yamaguchi

Aoba Johsai:

Hajime Iwazumi  
Yutaro Kindaichi  
Akira Kunimi  
Kentaro Kyotani  
Issei Matsukawa  
Toru Oikawa  
Shigeru Yahaba

Nekoma:

Lev Haiba  
Kenma Kozume  
Tetsuro Kuroo  
Morisuke Yaku  
Taketora Yamamoto

Date Tech:

Kanji Koganegawa

Takanobu Aone

Fukurodani:

Keiji Akaashi  
Kotaro Bokuto

Johzenji:

Yuji Terushima

Shiratorizawa:

Tsutomu Goshiki  
Eita Semi  
Satori Tendo  
Wakatoshi Ushijima

Kamomedai:

Korai Hoshiumi

Inarizaki:

Shinsuke Kita  
Atsumu Miya  
Osamu Miya  
Aran Ojiro  
Rintaro Suna

Itachiyama:

Kiyoomi Sakusa

Quotes:

"All the money in the world can't buy you happiness"

"Control is an illusion"

"Kindness is free, love is free"

"Have courage, be kind"

"Volleyball is something that not only I myself, but many other people love, if you love it, then that's enough reason to rejoin with us"

"As long as you try, chances of defeat can become slimmer"

"Thick thighs save lives"

"I guess even volleyball champions and sport stars can be big idiots"

"People are jackasses"

"If you wanna bully someone, pick on your own size"

"Just because you just started something, doesn't mean you can't be good at it"

"Even the expert was once a beginner"

"When you hide the pain you're going through, it may hurt you but it will hurt other people more when they find out themselves"

Trivia:

•Her favorite childhood cartoon is Winx Club.

•Her favorite Winx Club fairy is Stella (as they share looks and somewhat the same personality).

•Erika's favorite TV series on Netflix is 'Stranger Things'.

•Erika's favorite video game series in Danganronpa, she loves all four games and all characters indiscriminately

•Erika has been shown to be bisexual and has known ever since the age of 13.

•Erika loves watching anime and cartoons and reading manga and books in her spare time if she has nothing else to do.

•Erika is shown to be very good at singing, dancing, acting and even cooking as well (but is too shy to show anyone else these talents of hers).

•Besides volleyball, Erika takes extra lessons such as French, English and Japanese to perfect her speaking, aikido, taekwondo, kung fu, karate and many martial arts classes for self defense, dancing (as her stepmother used to take her there in the beginning) and modeling.

•Erika's favorite fruit is cherries

•Erika is shown from her family to have French and Irish blood, stating that she is half European.

•The blonde hair in her family is from her fathers side.

•Erika's name in Japanese means "scent of blessed pears" and "fragrant pears"

•Erika's adopted last name means "little plum". The plum blossom is symbolic for endurance against opposition of cold winters as they bloom in harsh climates. This showcases her victories and losses against many matches as a child.

•Erika is not only famous for volleyball at nationals, but also for her videos on YouTube and TikTok for volleyball, dancing, etc., modeling and many more.

-

(Credit to OVERHAVL, crinqvoids, HONEYACHI (on Wattpad), astralkisses- and more people for the layout here)

Got any questions about her?

Just let me know here and I'll answer them as soon as I can right here! ❤️❤️❤️

BUT YA'LL I CAN'T GET OHER HOW MY AMAZING FRIEND KAILEE (_Music-Is-Art_) DREW THIS FOR ME!

I LOVE HER SO MUCH YOU GUYS DON'T UNDERSTAND!😭😭😭

GIVE HER SOME LOVE EVERYONE! SHE DESERVES THE WORLD!


	3. Playlist (Prologue)

💗═══════════════════💗

My Demons by Starset

Mayday! Mayday!  
The ship is slowly sinking  
They think I'm crazy but they don't know the feeling  
They're all around me,  
Circling like vultures  
They wanna break me and wash away my colors  
Wash away my colors

Princesses Don't Cry by Aviva

No, I'm fine  
I'm lying on the floor again  
Cracked door  
I always want to let you in  
Even after all of the shit  
I'm resilient

True Friends by Bring Me The Horizon

I wouldn't hold my breath if I was you  
Cause I'll forget but I'll never forgive you  
Don't you know, don't you know  
True friends stab you in the front?

Lunchbox Friends by Melanie Martinez

The hassle, the fighting, they all want a bite of me  
Photos, more photos  
Make gossip about hoes that they don't know  
Oh, they talk shit though

Panic Room by Au/Ra

Welcome to the panic room  
Where all your darkest fears are gonna  
Come for you, come for you  
Welcome to the panic room  
You'll know I wasn't joking  
When you see them too, see them too

💗═══════════════════💗


	4. 00◞PROLOGUE (1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 💗═════════════════════════════💗
> 
> My Demons by Starset
> 
> Mayday! Mayday!  
> The ship is slowly sinking  
> They think I'm crazy but they don't know the feeling  
> They're all around me,  
> Circling like vultures  
> They wanna break me and wash away my colors  
> Wash away my colors
> 
> 💗═════════════════════════════💗

The bright lights shined down on the one known as the "angel" on the court, Erika Koume.

Eyes were all on her at the court to wait for not just her school but for her to win as well.

Many familiar faces came to watch the match, but most of them came to just see her.

But for her team, things weren't going so well.

The opposing team had caught the ball, giving it to their setter to let their decoy fool the team and have the ace create a spike on a very vulnerable spot.

"Yuuki-Hiko! Yuuki-Hiko Junior High!"

The opposite teams cheer squad called out their victory, filling Erika with only more frustration towards herself.

"Erika! Snap out of it! You gotta do better!", her best friend Kiyo Sato, their team setter growled out loudly as she was growing angrier and more frustrated with her friends failure towards their team.

The blonde girl released her hair from her high ponytail for a minute as it was covered from the sweat that tricked on her forehead, "I'm sorry, I'll try harder", her breathing started to sound heavier after just speaking from that declaration.

Soft pants escaped her lips from not only the exhaustion, but the fear and anxiety that clouded her mind.

'Come on! You gotta win this! This is for your team!'

The volleyball played internally shouted and berated to herself as her fingers curled into her long silky golden blonde locks that was drenched with sweat from the first and second set.

Wiping the sweat from her brow, Erika looked at the other teammates with some of their eyes glaring sharply towards her or some had looks of concern for their friend and team captain.

"Go go Sakurako! Beat them beat them!"

The cheers of the opposing teams echoed across the stadiums, filling the young female volleyball players with motivation and determination as they played their game on the court.

They were left at a deuce and they flunked these next rounds it was game over.

"Come on Suki! Give us a good one!", the opposite team cheered for their ace, who continued bouncing the ball onto the polished wooden floor multiple times as they took a big deep breath.

The tired and frustrated teammates kept an eye on the Yuukiko team ace, jumping into the air and hitting the ball in their hand with another monster serve.

Erika looked to see where the ball was heading but was too late as her feet were planted solid on the ground, watching how the other team easily snatched a point.

"Erika! Move your ass!", one of the teams middle blockers known as Airi Akiyama shouted to the well known volleyball champion, causing her to jump slightly at the sound. "I'm sorry!", the blonde girl shouted in return as she quickly wiped the tears from her sunny golden brown eyes, keeping them on the next ball that the ace was about to serve again.

The ace had served the ball yet again, two twin middle blockers known as Chinami and Chinatsu Fujioka ran to cover the ball. The one twin had caught the ball and let it fly into the air, "one touch!", the twin known as Chinami called out as she let her twin sister catch the ball, "it's chance ball!", Chinatsu called out before handing to their setter.

Erika and Airi up to the net to get themselves ready to spike, hoping to earn themselves a point for their team as Kiyo had the ball in her hands, throwing the set a little too far than expected.

The brunette middle blocker rose her feet into the air to catch the ball but only to have Erika's body accidentally clashing into her teammate.

"Move it bitch! This point is mine!", Airi called out as her fingers tips touched the ball, using a feint attack to successfully steal even one small point.

Both girls fell onto the floor, their teammates running up to help their exhausted sweaty bodies off of the ground.

Ito Hamada, the libero helped Erika off of the ground glaring momentarily at Airi for her and some of the other teammates and treatment towards Erika.

"You okay Eri?", the libero asked her teammate, looking up at her with her concern as she panted softly from exhaustion and bruises stockpiling on her skin from the constant floor diving and running around to catch the ball.

"Y-Yeah", Erika looked back at her friend, "Thanks Ito", she could only plaster a fake smile for a moment before getting her game face back on to continue the rest of the match and finish this once and for all.

"Come on Eri! If you win this for us then we'll be champions for nationals!", Kiyo looked back at her best friend for more than two years, more of threatening than of actual encouraging to pressure the team captain into winning this match for them.

The first, second and third years of the team battled and fought hard and endlessly in the last match that could have their team winning for good.

The ball bounced endlessly into the sky by the teams bruises and battered arms with their feet dragging on the ground and their legs aching from the pain and exhaustion.

"Erika! Don't mess this one up!", Kiyo called out as she finally held the ball in her hands, calling out to the ace and team captain who started to run in her direction.

The blonde girl jumped into the air, hoping to hit the ball as she saw a clear vulnerable spot that would be easy to hit and land their last score for the whole game.

But it was too late.

Another even taller member of the opposing team got the lead on Erika, blocking her opening and bringing the ball back onto their side of the court.

Airi, Chinatsu and Ito all three dove onto the floor to save the ball, but their efforts were futile.

It was plain and simple, even clear as day.

They had lost.

-

Well shit!

Here we go on the prologue!

And the first ever chapter of Erika Koume!

What do you guys think of her?

Yes, the teammates are quite toxic!

Don't ever let any of your friends or anyone else in your life treat you like this!

If you have anyone treating you badly like this, send me their location and we'll just have a friendly "talk"!

See you guys in the next chapter!

Byeonara!


	5. 00◞PROLOGUE (2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 💗═════════════════════════════💗
> 
> Princesses Don't Cry by Aviva
> 
> No, I'm fine  
> I'm lying on the floor again  
> Cracked door  
> I always want to let you in  
> Even after all of the shit  
> I'm resilient
> 
> 💗═════════════════════════════💗

It was of course plain and simple, even clear as day to them.

They had lost.

They had lost their final match in nationals.

The deafening silence was broken as the referee blew the whistle, showing that Yuukihiko had won the match.

The stadium was filled with cheers for the winning team and silent sighs of defeat for the losing team while Erika's feet were glued to the ground, looking at the ball that had landed onto the ground declaring the opposing teams victory and her own teams defeat.

The sheer pain on the feeling of failure washed over the volleyball champion as she looked at her teammates getting up from the ground, wiping the tears away from their eyes as they stood up bravely.

Everyone had a hard time taking it in that they lost, even their own captain. It was just to hard to accept the reality but they had no other choice but too.

Erika didn't even notice the tears until she felt soft sobs escaping from her throat accompanied with the heavy breathing, but she couldn't afford to have a panic attack now in public with all of these people watching her and her team.

"Come on everyone, let's line up", her teary brown eyes looked at her teammates, before standing at their side of the net, greeting and thanking the opposing teammates and their coaches for the game and thanking their cheer squad for coming to them.

The award ceremony felt like it lasted forever, at least to Erika it did.

Watching the opposing teammates taking the trophy home and having their photographs taken with bright smiles, happy poses and just having a happy atmosphere washed over them.

She wanted to feel that way for the opposing team, she wanted to be happy for them because they worked just as hard as her own team to get where they are now, but her heart was in too much pain from their loss and her mind couldn't even think straight for a minute.

"C-Come on now, we should be heading out. Our bus will be here soon, so pack up everything and make sure you don't leave anything behind", the captain gave a small but reassuring smile towards her teammates to not let them worry, but some of them only exchanged sharp glares while others plain out ignored her.

The blonde girl could sense the anger and disappointment being sent towards her or even radiating the feeling towards themselves, silencing her as she frowned. Her dark brown eyes looked down at the ground as she turned away from her heartbroken and defeated teammates.

"I'll be back soon, make sure to hydrate and eat something", she spoke once more, looking out for her teammates as her exhausted feet started to drag themselves on the yellow and blue courtroom floors to head to the girls bathroom.

As Erika continued to walk to the girls bathroom, reality felt distorted to her as she ignored the presence of everyone she passed by, recognizing her for her fame as a young volleyball champion or the captain of the Sakurako team that lost against Yuukihiko.

She wiped away her tears as she leaned her head down, hiding away her face so no one would have to see someone with fame in tears just because she had lost, it would be unprofessional in the eyes of the public and even to other famous volleyball players themselves and to the family, friends and other people who came to watch all of them today.

A soft sigh escaped her lips as she finally reached the girls bathroom, heading into one of the talks further in the back while making sure no one was around.

Seeing that the coast was clear, Erika walked into the stall and locked it up.

The feeling of seclusion let her help free the anger and frustration that had been building up inside herself, with tears falling out her beautiful sunny golden brown eyes and cascading down her snow white rosy cheeks, soaking her sweaty stinging palms that covered her beautiful face.

Soft silent sobs escaped from her throat as the tears continued to soak her hands and her face, leaning her body forward as she felt the sweat created from the hard work and non stop running and catching the ball on her face blend with the tears of defeat, sadness, anger and frustration that was built up inside of her from the whole match and these past few games.

Was she just getting worse at volleyball everyday? Or even just being a team captain or teammate in general?

She wanted, no, she needed answered right then and there.

What was she doing wrong?

Everything had just been falling apart for her and her teammates and now the sport she had loved ever since she was a little girl was turning against her.

But why?

She loved and adored volleyball as a little girl along with her adoptive parents and little sister, who were both volleyball champions and they loved the sports with all of their hearts and souls too.

She was carrying the legacy for them, but she had now failed them both as a daughter and a volleyball player and champion to them, even as a teammate and captain for her own team.

She just needed to get her mind off of everything when she gets home, then everything would surely be okay.

Maybe if she just focused on herself and cheering up her teammates, even having lots and lots of practice and having fun together it would bring them all back together again.

Then everything would be okay in the end.

Because that's what she was always taught by her parents and what she learnt at a young age.

'If it's not okay, it's not the end'

A small smile crawled onto Erika's face as she repeated the words inside of her mind, being motivated to go and cheer up her teammates and to let them know as their captain and friend, everything would be okay.

But before she could even do anything, she heard the bathroom door opening and the familiar voice of her teammates.

"My god that game was terrible", Kiyo's voice echoed throughout the bathroom stalls, "Yeah it sure was, and we have our captain to blame", another one of her teammates voice spoke out, crushing Erika's heart at what she was hearing.

-

Yes!

Her "teammates" or "friends" are extremely toxic!

And my poor baby has quite bad anxiety!

If you have toxic friends like this, dump them instantly!

Because you don't deserve people like this in your life!

I'll even be your friend if you want me to be!

❤️❤️❤️

See you guys in the next chapters!

Byeonara!


	6. 00◞PROLOGUE (3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 💗═════════════════════════════💗
> 
> True Friends by Bring Me The Horizon
> 
> I wouldn't hold my breath if I was you  
> Cause I'll forget but I'll never forgive you  
> Don't you know, don't you know  
> True friends stab you in the front?
> 
> 💗═════════════════════════════💗

Erika couldn't even believe what she was now hearing.

Her own teammates, or even her own friends were talking about her like this behind her back.

Did they always do this?

Or did they start this only now?

But why were they even doing this in the first place?

Millions of questions flowed through the volleyball team captains mind as she continued to listen to her so-called "friends" and "teammates" continue talking.

"Why the hell did we even pick her to be our captain in the first place? She's literally the worst", another winged spiker known as Shizuku Konda laughed as she washed the sweat off of her face, "Yeah, we should've picked Kiyo but then we wouldn't have been able to get to nations so easily", another winged spiker named Yuriko Yoshioka sighed in exhaustion as she unleashed her wild long brunette hair from her tight ponytail.

The team captain could feel her heart being shattered into a million pieces as she heard what they were saying and how they were even laughing.

"At least we'll be getting rewards for our game or something", another girl who was a middle blocker named Rui Kawashima took out her phone and started to tap on her device.

"Yeah, but they're mainly going to be for Erika Rui", another middle blocker who was only a few centimeters shorter than Erika replied in a rather snarky manner towards her teammate making Kiyo roll her ocean eyes.

"Yeah, it's not like she even deserves those awards anyways, she hasn't even been on the court with us in a year or so but they're acknowledging her more than us? My god", Kiyo spat out as she looked at herself in the mirror, jealousy fuming in her voice and burning brightly in her eyes.

"I can't even believe I've been best friends with that girl for years, she's honestly the worst. She's such a diva, a lazy ass and my god so dramatic", her fingers ran through her long curly burnt sienna hair that was drenched in sweat and some water to cook herself down while sweat dripped down her deathly pale skin.

Erika couldn't believe the words that she was hearing from Kiyo.

She thought that they were friends for so many years and this is how she talks about her to the other teammates and some of them even agree with her.

Her cheeks were damp yet again as she felt her golden brown orbs turn glossy yet again from the tears as they started to stream down her cheeks.

Her spirit was nearly broken from losing the match but she managed to bounce back from that and was even willing to help the rest of the team too.

But hearing how they were now talking behind her back and the things that they were saying about her had broken her heart.

She meant nothing to them, she was nothing but a problem to them and her team. Everything they had been through together and everything she had done for them was all for nothing.

She helped the volleyball team get back on its feet, she helped Kiyo when times were getting hard for her, she laughed and shared so many fun memories with her, Airi, Shizuku and the others, they saw her weakest moments when everyone saw a bright smiling young girl, they even defended and helped her when she was being bullied in class, lunchtime and other times too and she helped them out as well, she had shown her vulnerability and secrets to them that she had told no one else, now they threw everything they had into the trash.

"Come on now, before our captain starts nagging us to go back to the bus already", Kasumi Ozawa, another middle blocker rolled her onyx eyes and flipped her long black locks as she picked up her dark purple Nike gym bag.

Kiyo picked up her phone and put it in her pocket as she picked up her stuff as well, "Well time to get out of here and go back home, now where is Erika anyways?", she pondered as she rolled her eyes, thinking of her best friend who was also her teammate and captain that just annoyed her to the bone and core.

Erika stood up on her feet and opened the stall door slowly, revealing her face to "friends" and teammates who seemed rather horrified at the sight.

Her golden brown eyes seethed with rage and pain from her backstabbing friends as she looked up at their faces, "So, you don't want me as captain anymore huh? That can be arranged", venom seethed out of her silver tongue as she gave a sharp glare towards her teammates.

"Whoa whoa, Erika! We were only joking", Mana tried to laugh off what they were saying as she looked at the others, "Right guys?"

The others laughed it off as they looked back at their team captain and friend, "Oh totally", Airi smiled brightly and let out a cute giggle while walking up to Erika, "See Eri, we would never hate our team captain that badly", the brunette spoke as she tried to wrap her arm around her shoulder to play it off cool with her friend and team captain, laughing lightly as she looked at her other teammates.

"Fuck off", the team captain abruptly spoke, not buying their bullshit anymore as she moved herself from Airi's grip and started to walk out of the girls restroom ignoring her fake friends and teammates calls and pleas saying that they were only joking and they weren't being serious.

But the pain of having being backstabbed and now bullied like that by someone who you thought were your friends and teammates had made Erika feel her heart continuing to shatter in pieces, while the others looked at her.

"Wait, Eri! Are you okay?", Ito looked at her team captain as she sat up from the bench, her short height made her look up at the team captains ready eyes and tear stained cheeks.

"Just leave me alone"

-

I've probably said this once, twice or maybe even more!

But don't ever let your friends treat you like this!

If they do, then they're not true friends at all!

They're just a bunch of toxic people and bullies!

If you're going through something like this!

If you want to try, maybe talk to them and tell them that they hurt your feelings and if they continue, then leave them!

No one deserves this much toxicity in their life!

Other than that!

I hope you guys enjoyed this even tho it was probably terrible!

See you all in the next chapters!

Byeonara!


	7. 00◞PROLOGUE (4)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 💗═════════════════════════════💗
> 
> Lunchbox Friends by Melanie Martinez
> 
> The hassle, the fighting, they all want a bite of me  
> Photos, more photos  
> Make gossip about hoes that they don't know  
> Oh, they talk shit though
> 
> 💗═════════════════════════════💗

"Just leave me alone"

Miu Asato, the twins and Ito were quite stunned at the behavior their team captain was showing right now.

Sure everyone had their bad days on the court especially their captain, but to just hear those words coming from out of her mouth like that brought a real shocker on the other four players.

"Eri, are you okay?", Ito gently reached out her hand to comfort the team captain but she kept her back turned away from them, "I'm fine, I just want to go home", the blonde broke out into another sob as she started to walk away from the others, leaving them in question in why their captain was acting this way.

Once she was away from the others and now waiting by the bus, Eri pulled out her phone from her gym bag and started to text her parents about the match and what happened, but no reply came back yet and she knew it would probably take a while too.

A soft sigh fell from her lips as she put her phone back into her bag while seeing her teammates happily chattering and trying to cheer each other up, and some of the girls acting as if nothing had happened in the bathroom.

"Hey Eri, you wanna come play karaoke with us? It will be fun!", Airi smiled brightly as she offered her team captain, acting as if she didn't say anything mean in the girls bathroom.

'Has she always done that? Acting so sweet and friendly to me even though she has said those things in the bathroom like that?'

The blonde girl looked at the brunette and the other girls, "thanks for the offer but I'm good", her tone was meant to be polite but it seethed with venom from the pain, anger and betrayal that swelled painfully in her heart and mind as she refused their offer before giving them a sweet genuine looking smile but truthfully held a lot of pain and sadness inside of her.

The team captain got onto the bus, sitting at a front seat where no one else would really sit while she stared out at the window.

The happy chatter, talking about the game but also crying of pain and frustration echoed around the bus but it all became blurry and foggy for Erika as she put on her earphones and listened to whatever song came onto her playlist or even just random search.

The bus ride back to the inn they were staying in was long and painful, at least for Erika as she watched her so-called "friends" interacting with each other with joy and acted as if she didn't even exist at all.

Sure she was a secluded person who liked to keep to herself and spend time alone, but she also had people that she liked to interact with and even trusted them as friends.

But now that she made this new painful discovery, she didn't even feel like interacting with or even talking to anyone at all.

"We're here", coach Arima called out to the girls on the volleyball team, making Erika sigh in relief as she could finally get off the long bus ride.

The older woman first got off the bus and then Erika, once the others were off the bus they headed back into the inn, still talking and happily chattering towards each other while only Ito and the twins noticed that something was off about their friend and team captain.

Some stayed in the living room to carry on with their conversations that took place in the bus, others decided to wash off in the bathroom, some even went to kitchen to grab a bite to eat or drink some water or other refreshments and some even stuck in the rooms to catch some winks or to change out of their dirty sweaty uniforms that clung onto their sweat skins.

"Man I should really take a shower right now", Miu complained as she grabbed some of her necessities for the showers, "Me too, I'm sweating like a pig", Airi laughed as she grabbed a towel and some spare clothes to wear after before walking with some of the other girls into the shower as well.

Erika changed out of her sweaty black and white school volleyball uniform and track jacket and even underwear as well, freeing her slim yet curvy body that was covered in bruises, floor burns and some scrapes too while her beautifully tanned skin also being plastered and drenched in sweat.

She let out another soft but sad sigh yet again as she took off her sweaty match pair of plain black bra and panties, leaving her bare and naked in the inn room that all the girls shared together but would be leaving in two days time.

Erika grabbed an oversized plain white t-shirt and a pair of plain black comfy PJ shorts that were a little bit big for her size, but she honestly enjoyed wearing oversized clothes because they were comfy, good for extremely cold days and she was really subconscious about her body (even though her friends kept on complimenting her body and saying how beautiful it was, she still thanked them but didn't really see anything special about herself).

The blonde girl put on the clothes to keep herself comfortable before heading into the showers after everyone else, knowing they might also take a while though but she had a mother and two little sisters at home, so of course she was used to it by now.

After laying her drained and exhausted body down onto her arranged futon that was stacked neatly along with the other girls sleeping mattresses and futons, the team captain took out her phone and earphones to jam out whatever song was playing about backstabbing friends and feelings of betrayal or even just to watch anime to block out the painful thoughts from her mind.

She laid down on her side just so she wouldn't have to make eye contact with the first person or groups of people who would walk out of the showers first.

Right now, she just wanted to sleep forever and never wake up. But that wouldn't really be an option until she was finally home or somewhere else that was extremely secluded.

-

Poor Erika!

Dealing with backstabbing and fake friends is hard and heart breaking I know!

But things will get better!

I promise!

And they don't deserve you anyways!

But you should never look down!

See you guys in the next chapter!

Byeonara!


	8. 00◞PROLOGUE (5)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 💗═════════════════════════════💗
> 
> Panic Room by Au/Ra
> 
> Welcome to the panic room  
> Where all your darkest fears are gonna  
> Come for you, come for you  
> Welcome to the panic room  
> You'll know I wasn't joking  
> When you see them too, see them too
> 
> 💗═════════════════════════════💗

After two hours or maybe even more, the other girls had left the shower room drying off their naked or half naked bodies covered in their towels, underwear, PJ's or comfy clothes with washed up hair and bodies to wash off the smell of sweat and dirt and germs from the floors of the building.

Erika grabbed all of her things first to head to the shower room, somehow managing to avoid the attention of everyone else as she walked into the room.

It was something about her though, she was somewhat a chameleon that only very few people could see because of her ability to adapt to wherever she was and the not always the situation but she would manage somehow.

Without the other girls even noticing Erika walking quietly into the bathroom, she opened the door and then closed it making sure that no one else was around to disturb or to see her crying.

The blonde girl turned the faucet, letting the warm water droplets rain down on her sweaty skin and body and let her succumb into the steamy shower warmth that smelt of bath soaps and even other scented mixes like lavender and more.

Letting out another soft sigh that mixed in with small soft but silent sobs with more tears falling down her cheeks, Erika sat on the stool as she gently hugged her legs closer to her naked body.

As if the water was encouraging her to let it all out, Erika felt grateful that no one else was there to see her crying.

Erika Koume aka Ms Nationals seemed to always be unstoppable and powerful whenever she was on the court or playing volleyball in general, but in truth she was nothing more than a normal girl with not much special qualities within her.

Sure she tried to be a good person to others, being kind to strangers and even other people, tried to help out and teach her teammates as best as she could, lead the team like a real captain, even to be a good daughter to her parents and older sibling to her little sisters.

But right now, she didn't even feel good about herself.

These last few months everything had just been falling apart and now she had just lost nationals.

Everyone on the team thought she was unstoppable on the court, but just like everyone else she was only human.

They thought they could use and pressure her to get them into nationals, but they only ended up in nothing but failure.

It was all evident in how the other team won the trophy, the bright smiles and tears of joy for their victory, her teammates tears and even her own "friends" words that they spoke about her behind her back and then how they tried to play it off cool and then acted as she didn't exist on the bus and when they reached the inn together.

Erika fell into her knees, breathing heavily and sobbing loudly that were muffled by her hands as she kneeled her body onto the floor.

The pain and frustrations she was feeling would be clear as day to most people if they ever walked in to see her like this.

But she hated it whenever people saw her crying, she didn't even know why herself. Was it because she hated how she looked? Because people would see her as weak and dramatic whenever she cried? Or something else?

The blonde team captain couldn't even bring herself to find the answer at the moment as she drowned her pain and sadness in the shower, letting the whole room become full of steam as she succumbed into the flaming hot water that didn't seem to boil her skin.

✮ ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮

The other girls were left in the room that they all shared, drying off their bodies with their towels or changing into their clothes to soon eat dinner.

"Okay girls, it's almost dinner so make sure you are ready soon"

"Yes ma'am!"

The girls replied to coach Arima as they speed the pace of whatever they were doing.

The twins and Ito looked at the shower door and then around the room to see if Erika was around, but they knew she would join them soon so it wasn't anything that they should worry about now.

✮ ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮

After a few hours of nothing but crying and enduring her panic attack in the shower, Erika had soon calmed down as she started to wash off her hair and body that were covered in sweat and dirt from before.

Her body somewhat relaxed after letting it all out, but she just needed some more time before she could even start talking to people again like a normal person, or they would get a whole bunch of sad and angry Erika rants, crying, etc. and she knew it would become quite an earful so she just decided to not say anything yet.

Once the former young nationals champion was finished in her shower, she turned off the water and wrapped her curvaceous body in a towel and making herself look as if she hadn't probably cried for an hour or even more straight, she inhaled and exhaled deeply before walking out of the bathroom.

Her feet dragged themselves into the bedroom that all the girls shared, seeing that no one else was around, she couldn't help but sigh in relief as she dropped the towel off of her naked body before changing it back into the shirt and comfy shorts that she was wearing before.

Erika quickly walked down the stairs of the inn that lead to the dining hall, seeing everyone happily chattering together as they munched their meals.

The teammates and coach heard the sounds of the door opening, seeing their team captain walking into the dining room.

"Sorry I'm late for dinner", Erika bowed respectfully as she started to walk to get herself some food and find a secluded spot to sit down.

When she finally grabbed her bowl of rice and side portions of meat and steamed vegetables, the team captain sat down at her seat to not draw any attention to herself as she watched the others.

A strange feeling of loneliness washed over Erika as she watched all of her "friends" talk to each other happily, as if she didn't even exist.

She couldn't blame anyone though, she didn't fit into the crowd and would rather be alone in her own space most of the time. But it would be nice for some people to at least acknowledge her presence once in a while and even have some friends that wouldn't do something like this to her.

Something inside of her kept on saying that she was going to be alone for a while, but she didn't know how long or why.

But she didn't want to get involved in anymore needless drama, fake friendships, backstabbing or anything else that involves more pain and heartbreak.

-

Welp!

That's all the chapters for the prologue!

Yes, things aren't very bright for Erika now!

But they will get better later on!

Just hold on everyone!

See you guys in the next chapter!

Bye for now!


	9. Playlist (Chapter 1)

💗═════════════════════════════💗

💗═════════════════════════════💗  
Home by Rhodes

Losing my reflection in the water  
Chasing my complection in the time  
Keeping all my secrets in the cold cold wind  
I can hear you calling in the night

DOLLHOUSE by Melanie Martinez

D-O-L-L-H-O-U-S-E  
I see things that nobody else sees  
(D-O-L-L-H-O-U-S-E  
I see things that nobody else sees)

Daddy Issues by The Neighborhood

Go ahead and cry little girl  
Nobody does it like you do  
I know how much it matters to you  
I know that you got daddy issues  
And if you were my little girl  
I'd do whatever I could do  
I'd run away and hide with you  
I love that you got daddy issues  
And I do too

Without Me by Halsey

Tell me, how's it feel sittin' up there?  
Feeling so high, but too far away to hold me  
You know I'm the one who put you up there  
Name in the sky, does it ever get lonely?  
Thinking you could live without me  
Thinking you could live without me  
Baby, I'm the one who put you up there  
I don't know why (yeah, I don't know why)  
Thinking you could live without me  
Live without me  
Baby, I'm the one who put you up there  
I don't know why (I don't know why, yeah, yeah)

Don't Let Me Down by The Chainsmokers and Daya

I need you, I need you, I need you right now  
Yeah, I need you right now  
So don't let me, don't let me, don't let me down  
I think I'm losing my mind now  
It's in my head, darling, I hope  
That you'll be here, when I need you the most  
So don't let me, don't let me, don't let me down  
D-don't let me down

💗═════════════════════════════💗


	10. CHAPTER 1◟SISTERS (1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 💗═════════════════════════════💗
> 
> Home by
> 
> Losing my reflection in the water  
> Chasing my complection in the time  
> Keeping all my secrets in the cold cold wind  
> I can hear you calling in the night
> 
> 💗═════════════════════════════💗

Disappointment.

The word itself made the young nationals champion want to curl herself into a ball and cry herself to sleep and never wake up again.

She could already hear those words coming from her "friends", teammates, sisters, parents, private coaches and tutors mouthes already. The venom that would lace in the words coming out from their tongues, their voices talking to her in shouts, yelling and berating to the point where she would break down into tears and just the sheer hatred in their eyes.

She could already see it. She didn't want to go home to this but there was nowhere else for her to go.

A soft sigh escaped Erika's lips as she looked out at the windows of the black sparkling and polished limousine, her light golden brown eyes watching the red sky turning into a darker shade of orange mixing with the yellow of the sun as the beat of the drums and electric guitar echoed throughout the limousine's radio.

Her thoughts were too deep into thought and her ears listening to the sounds of the bands in her childhood for hours, that she didn't even realize her driver had already reached their destination.

"Ms. Erika", Erika's driver and chaperone, Takuya Enomoto, spoke only briefly as he stopped the limousine and turned off the music, "we have arrived back home"

Nodding her head, the blonde girl grabbed her sports bags and hopped outside of the car, "Thanks Takuya", she looked at him before bowing politely as he got out of the car and let the rest of the house staff take out her luggage from nationals and bringing them into the house.

As Erika was about to offer some assistance by taking some of the luggage in by herself, she was stopped by the house staff who insisted that she go into the house and rest as they knew she probably had a long and tiring trip from Tokyo.

After finally giving in, Erika's long slender legs started to walk into the mansion with trudges and slow steps as her amber eyes were glued to the white marble tiled grounds of the mansion.

"Eri!"

After lifting her head up at hearing a familiar voice calling out her name, the volleyball star saw a two girls running her way. One was of the age 14 and the other of the age 5, both had blonde hair being strikingly similar to her own and brown eyes that were almost the same of her own.

"Erika", the 14 year old girl wrapped her arms around the older girl, engulfing her into a tight and embracing hug and the little girl hugged her around her waist, pulling her close and as they never let her go even once.

"Hey Etsuko", the older girl looked at her younger sister as she hugged her close as they were almost the same height, "and Kameko", her hand gently brought the little girl closer to her.

"Eri, you were awesome out there! You were like "whoosh" and then "boom" and then", the little girl known as Kameko started to move her body around, shouting in excitement as she mimicked the movements she saw on TV when watching nationals in Tokyo.

Etsuko couldn't help but laugh lightly as she watched how Kameko was mimicking volleyball, but when she turned her face to meet Erika's,l there was a smile on her face when watching her, but not a happy one.

"Erika, are you okay?", the other blonde girl turned to look at her sister, concern washing over her beautiful delicate features that slightly matched her older sisters.

Erika turned to her sister, being nearly caught off guard, "Oh yeah, I'm okay. Why do you ask?", the older girl looked back at her little sister with a reassuring look, but Etsuko didn't buy it for even one second.

"It's just that, you've been really quiet since you got back home", Etsuko looked up at her older sister, "Did something happen?"

The question itself made Erika want to burst out into tears yet again but before she could do so, another woman by the name of Michiyo Shikoku walked up to them, making Kameko calm down from her excitement and the other two sisters close their mouths to listen to her.

Michiyo Shikoku woman who looked like she was in her late thirties to early forties with a sour face forever attached to her face, pitch black haired ties in a bun, thin framed glasses accentuating her slightly wrinkled face and her slim frame being complimented by a black professional pantsuit outfit.

The woman looked at the sisters with a sharp menacing glare burning in her wrinkled onyx eyes before landing onto the young volleyball nationals star.

"Ms. Erika", she spoke in a an angered tone in her voice but kept her front very professional for the sake of her job and front to her bosses, "Your parents request your presence, they except to see you soon"

Hearing the words Michiyo was speaking and knowing what they meant, Erika could feel her stomach dropping for a moment and her head spiraling in fear as she knew what was going to happen next.

"And Ms. Etsuko and Ms. Kameko, your lessons will starting shortly. So make sure to be ready soon", the woman told the other two sisters before spinning the heels of her black colored high heel pumps and walking away, leaving the three sisters alone again in silence.

"Hey! But that's not fair!", Kameko's sudden shout in protest made the woman stop in her tracks.

"Erika just got home and I wanted to play with her!", tears started to bubble at Kameko's brown and green accented colored eyes before rolling down her pale but rosy cheeks.

The words and shouting coming from the little girl made the elderly woman want to roll her eyes at the sky as she clenched her teeth, trying to remain her composure as she looked back at the little girl.

"You will get to play after dinner since you do have free time, but that is only for today", Michiyo spoke as she tried to calm down the little girl.

"No!"

The little girl shouted out in anger as the tears started to cascade down her cheeks, mocking the movements of a waterfall as the tiny little droplets hit the marble floor beneath her.

"No?", Michiyo almost screamed out in anger as she stomped towards the little girl, being ready to slap her hand across her little face.

"They're going to yell and scream at Erika again!", Kameko sobbed out as she hugged her older sister close to her, "I don't want them to yell at me, or Etsuko and Erika!", the blonde little girl released a few heavy sobs from her throat as she looked up at Michiyo.

Erika could've sworn she almost felt tears cascading down her cheeks as she heard the words and sobs coming her youngest sister, making her kneel to the floor and hug her tiny body close to her own bigger and exhausted one.

"It's okay Kameko", the oldest sister gently cupped the little girls face her thumbs gently wiped away the wet patches on the rose cheeks and the lines under her eyes, "Your big sisters will be okay", Erika spoke in a gentle reassuring tone.

"I promise I will play with you after dinner and dessert, we will have lots of fun and I promise I won't go anywhere", after speaking those words to calm her youngest sister down, Erika planted a small but sweet kiss on her forehead as Kameko nodded her head in return.

Erika stood up from the ground and gently handed Kameko's hand to Etsuko, letting them head back to their rooms to get ready for their everyday lessons of the week.

The middle sister looked at Erika with pain and concern, her heart was hoping and praying that everything would go well between her sisters. Her hand gently held Kameko's before the both of them walked out of the hallways and back into their own separate bedrooms.

When the both of them were finally gone, Erika started to walk slowly down the hallway that lead to her adoptive parents offices with her heart banging and beating rapidly in her chest with anxious plaguing her mind.

She knew this wasn't going to end well.

Nothing like this ever ended well.

But she knew that if she didn't come they would be angrier than before and they would take their anger out on her, Etsuko and Kameko.

She didn't want that, she wanted anything but that.

When she finally reached the door of her so-called fathers office, Erika had taken a deep breath in and then out before lifting her arm up and knocking her hand softly onto the wooden door in front of her.

"Come in"

Erika could hear that voice coming from her mother, the tense atmosphere of her anger and disappointment radiating even from outside the room made Erika want to run away but she couldn't move, her feet permanently planted to the ground as her hand moved to open the door.

This was it.

There was no turning back now.

-

Now ya'll have finally met her sisters Etsuko and Kameko!

Erika is the oldest of the both of them, Etsuko is the middle and Kameko is the youngest!

One more thing, Kameko is their half sister on their fathers side (if you've seen it on Erika's character profile)!

Now the next chapter you will meet more of her family!

But it isn't all that good tho!

See you guys in the next chapter!

Bye for now!


	11. CHAPTER 1◟THE KOUME FAMILY (2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 💗═════════════════════════════💗
> 
> DOLLHOUSE by Melanie Martinez
> 
> D-O-L-L-H-O-U-S-E  
> I see things that nobody else sees  
> (D-O-L-L-H-O-U-S-E  
> I see things that nobody else sees)
> 
> 💗═════════════════════════════💗

Erika's eyes wandered around the room as she looked at the medals, trophies, photographs, newspaper articles and more objects of everyday life used to describe the once known champions of volleyball, now married into a wealthy household and having three beautiful daughter adopted into their family.

Everyone would think that this would be the happy story and perfect life of Erika Koume.

But not everyone knows that even the most beautiful and perfect house can hold the most broken and toxic families inside.

The young nationals champion could only take one step into her fathers office, but only to be greeted by something that she didn't see coming but wasn't totally surprised.

Slap!

The harsh impact of the slap on her made Erika's face swing slightly to the side as she put her hand on her stinging cheek as she looked up at the woman known as her "mother", Kuma Koume.

The woman's hazel eyes were fueled with anger and fury as she looked down at Erika as she stood in front of her, watching how her adopted daughter could only stand in silence from the sudden and unpleasant surprise that came her way.

"Erika", her father, Isamu Koume, stood up from his desk as he looked unfazed with his wife's actions just now.

"I suppose you know why we called you up here", the older man's dark eyes gaze pierced into Erika's soul, his voice lacing venom and false kindness as his eyes were filled with disappointment and fury towards his daughter.

"Yes papa, I know", the blonde girl stood up properly as she removed her hand from her cheek and doing her best to hold back the tears from falling out of her eyes so they wouldn't get angrier towards her.

"I lost nationals", she answered honestly as she bowed her head, looking down at the red velvety carpet covered floor, "I know and I'm sorry, I-"

"An apology won't cut it this time!"

Her adoptive mother's shout made the girl jump up slightly as she was greeted with Kuma's slightly wrinkled face fuming matching with her infuriated stated.

"You were supposed to win for us and your team! Do you know what this does with our reputation if you lose like this?!", the once known volleyball champion screeched as she looked at Erika, "You disappointed us! On live TV!"

"I know that! You don't have to keep pointing it out!"

Erika watched at how her parents faces were filled were baffled in her outburst, but to be honest she felt quite surprised with it herself as well.

"I know I'm a disappointment to you! I'm trying to so hard to make you guys happy but I can't do it anymore! My friends and teammates betrayed me and I can't stand my school anymore!"

Erika could feel her voice starting to crack as tears started to cascade down her usually rosy cheeks and her eyes now flooded and glossy with tears as they slowly turned into a bloodshot color.

"I can't do it anymore! I just can't! No mo-!"

Before Erika could even continue speaking, her father growled lowly as he shouted at her.

"Stop crying so damn much!"

But that didn't stop the young girl's strangled sobs from escaping her throat and her exhausted body continuing to tremble and shake in fear as she looked at both of her adoptive parents.

"If you can't live up to our expectations! Then we'll abandon Etsuko and Kameko on the spot and you don't want that do you?"

With Isamu's threat and harsh words yelling at Erika, her now bloodshot light brown eyes widened in fear in realization, "N-No! D-Don't-!"

"Then make us actually proud for once", Kuma shouted as her eyes looked into Erika's own, looking at her with absolute hatred as she handed her a few pieces of paper.

"Your workload will be doubled and your breaks will be shortened. Everything will go back to normal once you actually make us proud and use that body of yours for good and win for once!", the once known champion of volleyball grabbed her wine glass, filled with sweet but bitter red wine and threw it towards the blonde girl, leaving her barely any time to react.

The glass hit Erika's leg with quite a bit of force before hitting the wall behind her, causing it to break from big to tiny pieces leaving the alcoholic drink to splatter everywhere while the glass sharps scattered around the floor. The noise and the sight itself caused Erika to flinch slightly and wince in pain as the force and impact was harder than she thought it would be.

The blonde girl looked up to see her parents still glaring sharply towards her before her father spoke again, "You are dismissed. We don't want to keep you from your extra lessons now, do we?"

"Yes papa and mama", she responded obediently as she wiped away her tears before walking out of her fathers office and down the hallway of the mansion.

Her usually sunny eyes had turned bloodshot and dull as she looked her new daily schedule, but a few words were blurry due to the tears that clouded her vision before she had finally reached her bedroom.

Soft sobs mixed with heavy breathing escaped out of Erika's throat as she sat down on her bed and her hands wiping away her tears.

Her heart and mind were pierced and stabbed continuously by their harsh and abusive words that they no remorse or regret behind. She knew that they just wanted to manipulate and make her extremely vulnerable and easy to use and with how they were doing it, they were doing a pretty good job in destroying her.

They knew how much her sisters and some people meant to her, they knew how much she loves volleyball, they knew her very well and they used it against her a lot.

She was under their full grasp.

Like a puppet with their strings at their masters command.

And only those in the Koume household knew what they would do if either children disobeyed or stood up to them.

-

Yay!

Another chapter finished!

Yes, Erika's adoptive parents are downright evil!

They're both class A narcissists and sociopaths!

Don't worry, Erika will have the happy ending soon!

See you guys in the next chapter!

Bye for now!


	12. CHAPTER 1◟DISAPPOINTMENT (3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 💗═════════════════════════════💗
> 
> Daddy Issues by The Neighborhood
> 
> Go ahead and cry little girl  
> Nobody does it like you do  
> I know how much it matters to you  
> I know that you got daddy issues  
> And if you were my little girl  
> I'd do whatever I could do  
> I'd run away and hide with you  
> I love that you got daddy issues  
> And I do too
> 
> 💗═════════════════════════════💗

The day had ended with Erika being extremely exhausted and tired beyond comparison from her usual days.

Her legs trudged towards her bedroom as her body was continuously aching from her harsh dancing lessons and routines that she practiced days before from her teacher.

But she knew that was all just the beginning.

Tomorrow and the days coming forward would become even worse.

Her schedule were just filled with her usual activities and lessons such as dancing, modeling, subjects she was lacking in school and more, breaks were once in the day and lasted only 15 minutes (but it was better than none at all) and barely had any room to breathe at all.

Everything was just too much. She couldn't even escape it anymore at this point and it would be futile to even try it at all.

Sighing softly, Erika looked at her workout routine that was going to be a challenge due to her now exhausted body.

"May as well get it over and done with now", the blonde girl sighed in defeat as she changed her into a pair of black comfy shorts that hugged her figure perfectly and a white sports bra.

Once she had finished changing, the young nationals champion but her earphones into her ears and blasted out the music as she started to do her workout, mentally counting every minute and second to make sure she made no mistakes.

With the music that played in her ears and happier days came to her mind, ones of her once original and actually once happy family.

Erika could feel her muscles aching rapidly as she had finally completed the workout routine for the late afternoon before dinner time, sighing softly as her sore and sweaty body plopped down onto her bed with her eyes feeling heavier and heavier by every second.

But she felt something cold against her skin, even a little flimsy like a piece of paper.

Erika grunted as she moved her aching body, taking the piece of paper out as she looked at what was on it.

But to her surprise, tears were once again brought to her eyes as she looked at the picture of her father and both of her sisters together at the beach when they were camping. Sure those camping trips weren't always the best because of her stepmother but they did come back with good memories and funny stories to tell her friends.

Those were the days when she was actually happy. Why did they have to be so painful to remember?

Burying her head in her pillow, soft sobs escaped her throat as her tears dampened the silky white fabric while her body was sprawled between the comfortable silky white sheets.

Her heart could only feel undeniable pain and agony with every beat that came to it, every sob caused her even more exhaustion and she just wanted to sleep for eternity.

It will just so tiring.

She tried to do hard to treat her adoptive mother as her own but she only turned her back and manipulated her and her sisters with cruel and harsh words.

Her adoptive father, she tried everything for him as their dad used to do. Such as make him small foods along with his breakfast, show him the bugs she found in the garden and even new tricks she learnt in volleyball.

He only pushed her and her sisters, being only angry and annoyed with their presence unless necessary.

She just wanted her father back.

Even her own mother.

She just wanted everything back to normal but she knew that she couldn't change the past and that was the worst thing about the present.

"Ms. Erika", a maid walked into her room, having knocking and calling out her name multiple times but there was no response at all from the young volleyball player.

Erika turned to see the door open and jumped slightly as she looked at the maid, "Oh, I'm sorry Ms Fuyo", the blonde looked at the maid before taking her earphones off and wiping the tears away from her eyes as she looked at her.

"Oh Ms. Erika, I came to call you to say dinner is ready, but oh dear are you okay?", the maid looked at her as she rushed to her side with Erika nodding her head in reply.

"Y-Yeah. S-Sorry", she could only let out light sobs in response as she wiped away her tears, "I-I'll be there now, T-Thanks Ms. Fuyo"

The old maid knew that Erika hated when people saw her crying, but Ms. Fuyo couldn't help but feel a pang in her chest whenever she saw her like this, especially having being Kuma and Isamu being the reason why she was crying herself to sleep every night.

"Alright Ms. Erika", she responded politely before walking out of the room as Erika continued to wipe her tears away and then wash them with water to clean herself off.

It took some time but Erika finally managed to make herself look as if she never broke down crying in the first place as she walked into the dining hall with dinner being prepared to her and her sisters who were already playing and happily chattering together.

"Erika!", Kameko smiled brightly as she crawled underneath the table from the other side and headed towards her oldest sister.

"Hey Kameko!", Erika smiled brightly as she picked up her five year old sister from the ground and sitting her down on her rather comfortable lap.

"You promised that we'll still be playing together right? I had a great idea!", the blonde little girl smiled happily with her sunny eyes shining brightly as she continued to chatter happily about the game she had in mind while they all ate dinner together.

Even most of though the days spent at this home went from bad to worst, the best time of the day was the one where Erika was happiest was the ones spent like this with her sisters.

Whether it be eating meals together, playing whatever games or sports, whatever it be, it was just so peaceful and joyful for her and nothing could ever replace the love she had for these two.

Whether it be eating meals together, playing whatever games or sports, whatever it be, it was just so peaceful and joyful for her and nothing could ever replace the love she had for these two.

-

Yes!

Erika and her sisters lives aren't very good in the Koume household!

But it will get better I promise!

And more family members and people from her life will be introduced sooner or later!

But yeah!

See you guys in the next chapter!

Bye for now!


	13. CHAPTER 1◟GRADUATION (4)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 💗═════════════════════════════💗
> 
> Without Me by Halsey
> 
> Tell me, how's it feel sittin' up there?  
> Feeling so high, but too far away to hold me  
> You know I'm the one who put you up there  
> Name in the sky, does it ever get lonely?  
> Thinking you could live without me  
> Thinking you could live without me  
> Baby, I'm the one who put you up there  
> I don't know why (yeah, I don't know why)  
> Thinking you could live without me  
> Live without me  
> Baby, I'm the one who put you up there  
> I don't know why (I don't know why, yeah, yeah)
> 
> 💗═════════════════════════════💗

The happy and excitable nonstop chattering inside the halls of Sakurako Junior High was making Erika feel anxious in her seat, wishing that she could get up from her her seat to leave the hall full of middle school students or at least listen to music and block out the loud noises that caused her ears to buzz.

A sigh of defeat escape the blonde graduates lips as her big brown eyes looked down at the wooden ground and focused on her feet being covered with the brown loafers that she would wear only one last time today.

She couldn't wait for it to be all over, then she could finally escape this nightmare of middle school and her old toxic friends and teammates and some of the people who hurt her to the point of numbness.

"Okay, please settle down everyone", the Sakurako Junior High's headmaster, Renjiro Nomura stood up on the stage with some of the other school faculty, such as teachers, coaches, club advisors and more stood up straight in more presentable clothing fit for a graduation.

Erika zoomed out as the old man started one of his boring old speeches that was made even worse with his elderly monotonous tone and disinterested attitude towards his students and the ceremony, seemingly more that he wanted it to be over and done with rather than celebrate it with his employees and students of the school.

"Alright, now time for the awards. Let's start with the first years", the headmaster sighed in defeat as he stood next to a table with stacks of certificates and trophies for different students in different years, classes, clubs and more.

Erika absolutely loathed awards. It was a time to show her low self esteem and shyness at the worst time on stage. It would bring total embarrassment and pain to not just herself, but the other students who didn't win anything or achieved anything great.

You could be the only one in your whole class who didn't get an award in your class, it would bring a feeling of being an outcast even if you were one before. You probably strived your best in class and all your other clubs, but you barely got anything out of it for whatever reason maybe.

"Erika Koume, 90% in English and dedication to the Girls Volleyball club, and we would like a few words from her as the captain as well"

Once those words came out of his mouth, Erika's heart started to shatter slightly as she tried to control her breathing.

Maybe it was just the mild anxiety she was diagnosed with in her therapy session a few weeks ago, but she felt her whole world started to crumble around her in that very moment.

Her tall legs wobbled slightly as she sat up from her seat, walking towards the stage where millions of eyes would looking at her, observing and even judging her.

Soft soothing breaths came out of her lips as she looked at Coach Arima and the principal before receiving her awards and looking at the crowd.

The overwhelming flow of everyone staring at her, but after looking at Coach Arima and whispering a few words into her ear, the elderly woman nodded in understanding and let Erika go back to her seat while she walked up to the mic.

"Would the Co Captain of the Girls Volleyball Team, Kiyo Sato come up on stage, please"

The sienna burnt haired girl had a bright smile popping on her face as she practically jumped up from her seat, taking this as her moment to shine as she started to walk up the stage confidently to take both her awards and the speech as the co captain of the girls volleyball team.

"Thank you everyone", Kiyo started to show her bubbly exterior with a bright smile before looking at the people in the crowd, "As the co captain of the girls volleyball team, it is an honor and privilege to work with such amazing people who helped us get to and almost won nationals for our whole school"

Erika couldn't help but let out a small sigh as she looked up at Kiyo, seeing her brag about herself and her achievements even going to nationals, thanking everyone but not even herself as she was the reason they were in nationals in the first place, and even lost in the end.

"You know what my father said to me that has helped me through the whole school year?", she asked with boastful tone in her voice with a light laugh to cover it up as a joke, "Suck it up"

The hall of students and teachers laughed lightly as the words the co caption spoke, "Yes, "suck it up", those were the very words he spoke when I couldn't carry on", Kiyo laughed before she continued speaking, "But on a serious note, thank you for all the help and support for myself and my teammates you have all given to us through nationals, let's strive our best next time and make it happen!"

Everyone in the hall started to cheer and applaud at Kiyo's words that both she and Erika memorized and written together as their speech for captain and co captain but since they kept the plan separate, it was her time to shine while the blonde girl sat down on her seat, unenthusiastically applauding for her ex best friend and teammate, being happy that she did well but heartbroken that the only reason she did was because of her own efforts on their friendship that she threw out, as it were nothing but everyday trash that nobody would even give a second thought or glance at.

With the awards seeming to carry on forever, the ceremony was soon finished the students started to scatter out of the hall to talking and having conversations with their parents or other relatives, teachers and friends.

The former volleyball captain could only let out a soft sigh, knowing that her sisters and adoptive parents couldn't make it because they were in Tokyo, hoping and praying nothing bad was going on and that they weren't hurting them and all her previous teammates and friends were chattering happily together.

She needed a friend and she knew one who would hopefully be her side in a time of need such as this.

Discreetly exiting the crowded halls of the school, Erika took her phone out of her pocket and walked into the garden of the school and dialing a forever familiar number, with her heart hoping and praying that the other person on the line would pick up the phone.

"Hello?"

-

And I oop-

A cliff hanger!

Who do you think the other person is?

Hint, it's not a boy!

I hate awards ceremonies tho!

I love getting awards but facing a whole ass crowd is a big nope for me!

See you guys in the next chapter!

Bye for now!


	14. CHAPTER 1◟FRIENDSHIP (5)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 💗═════════════════════════════💗
> 
> Don't Let Me Down by The Chainsmokers and Daya
> 
> I need you, I need you, I need you right now  
> Yeah, I need you right now  
> So don't let me, don't let me, don't let me down  
> I think I'm losing my mind now  
> It's in my head, darling, I hope  
> That you'll be here, when I need you the most  
> So don't let me, don't let me, don't let me down  
> D-don't let me down
> 
> 💗═════════════════════════════💗

"Hello?"

A sweet feminine voice answered on the other side of the call, filling Erika with a wave of relief as she heard.

"Hina, thank god", Erika felt a small smile crawled onto her lips as she could finally talk to her best friend that she's known since elementary school, "I-I was just wondering if you were available at any time and I'm sorry I haven't been answering a lot lately"

The blonde girl listened to the beat of the loud music in the background while she heard the other girl cheering with a few other people, "Oh it's no sweat Eri and I'm sorry but I'm not available now, how did graduation go?", the girl on the other side laughed as she kept on partying with her friends in crowd.

"It went fine, I could just use a f-fri-"

"Sorry, my signal is cutting off now, I can't talk right now. Maybe later and tell me everyth-"

Before the girl known as "Hina" could finish her sentence on the other side, Erika tapped the end call button on her phone.

Her usual sunny eyes looked down at the ground, watching as the short or long green shards of grow were flowing gracefully through the gentle breeze of the wind.

"What am I doing wrong?", a small sniffle escaped through Erika's nose with tears abruptly cascading down her sweet rosy cheeks.

Stopping the soft sobs escaping her throat, Erika used the sleeves of her school uniform blazer to wipe away her tears as she started to walk away from her middle school without anyone else noticing or following behind her.

The pink and white cherry blossoms were flowing gracefully along the wind as Erika continued to walk down the gravel road all alone, one where she used to walk with her friends and teammates on good, bad and even normal boring days. Days that were filled with laughter, tears, fangirling about idols, bands, fictional characters from TV shows and animes.

'So this is what it's like to walk alone huh?'

Erika stood still for a minute, watching how the cherry blossoms were falling down the trees and surrounding her in the ethereal magical scenery. Having herself take a few deep breaths in and then out, the blonde girl wiped away her tears as she looked everywhere around her.

"Just breathe, tomorrow is a new day. In a month you will be in a new high school, everything will be alright Erika", the graduate spoke to herself the reminder of what she learnt in therapy.

Until her concentration was soon ruined by a simple argument not too far away.

"I'm sorry, but volleyball is really important to me! We have to win against Ushiwaka and go to Nationals!"

Erika turned her head to see a brunet male student wearing a familiar school uniform expressing his anger out by talking rather loudly towards the girl who was in front of him, glaring coldly towards the male before turning her back.

"Oh I see how it is. Choose me or volleyball, you don't get either compromise", the girl in front of him spoke as she had her back turned to him.

This caused the high school boy in front of her to break into tears, "Please my teammates need me and I need you too, please-"

"I'm sorry, but we're breaking up", the girl abruptly spoke, interrupting the guy in front of her before walking away with none of them even speaking a word.

With Erika walking up the brunet male to ask if he was okay, but after taking a quick look at his face a sense of familiarity came back to her.

"Toru?"

With just one look, the high school student looked back at the blonde with his eyes widening slightly in realization at who he was looking at.

"Erika?"

Both pairs of sunny brown eyes looked at each other, with the high school male student looking at the middle school graduate in front of him, strangely awkward but comfortable silence between them.

"Are you okay?"

The both of them spoke at the same time, as if they were in sync with their very thoughts, having both pairs of brown eyes being red and puffy with tears falling out of them and staining their cheeks.

"O-Oh yeah, I'm sorry", Erika's voice stuttered slightly as she used the sleeve of her school blazer to wipe away her tears, "I-I'm sorry if I eavesdropped on your conversation like that"

The brunet male sighed softly as he sat down at the bench, his dark brown orbs looking down at the concrete ground with tears still welling up in his eyes, "Don't worry it's fine, you don't have to worry about me Erika"

With those words, she couldn't help but have a small frown on her lips as she sat down next to the high school student.

"You want talk about it or do you want get some milk bread?", she asked with a small smile on her lips, knowing it was his favorite food.

His hand gently took her own and held it, before bringing his head up to give her a sweet and gentle smile that adorned his handsome features, "thanks, I would really appreciate it Eri"

-

Yay!

She finally meets Toru Oikawa again after so long!

Toru is baby and he deserves the world!

Change my mind!

I love him sm!

😭😭😭

Where my other Oikawa stans at?!

And let's say we'll be getting a lot of Erika x Toru content for season 1, cuz yes!

See you guys in the next chapter!

Byeonara!


	15. CHAPTER 1◟KARASUNO HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL TEAM (6)

Beep!

Beep!

Beep!

A soft irritated groan escaped from Erika's lips as she turned her body to the side, doing her best to hold herself back from turning off her alarm clock and continuing her dream being the memories of her and her childhood best friend, Toru Oikawa.

Rubbing her tired golden brown eyes open, the once known Nationals star slipped out of her bed and started to head to her closet, taking off her new school uniform hanging on a clothing hanger and placing it on her bed before grabbing her phone and earphones to turn on some music.

Had to have high, high hopes for a living  
Shooting for the stars when I couldn't make a killing  
Didn't have a dime but I always had a vision  
Always had high, high hopes  
(High, high hopes)

Had to have high, high hopes for a living  
Didn't know how but I always had a feeling  
I was gonna be that one in a million  
Always had high, high hopes

A small smile appeared on Erika's lips as Brendon Urie's voice started to blare through her earphones and into her ears, putting her somewhat into a more joyful and energetic mood.

The Nationals child star and celebrity dragged her brush through her long silky blonde locks, making sure to get rid of all the knots and any friction before moving to her teeth to brush them and her face to wash it and cover up any bruises, scratches or more injuries with foundation.

Turning off her music for a second, Erika grabbed the foundation from her bathroom drawers and opened it up. Her fingers grabbed the little sponge and took in the makeup, gently patting it onto the burst blood vessels evident on her porcelain skin before rubbing it in to make it less evident.

Once her makeup had been complete and made it as natural as possible to make sure it didn't look like she had been beaten up the previous night, the blonde started to put on her new Karasuno school uniform and shoes onto her feet before walking down the stairs to meet with her sisters and adoptive parents to eat breakfast together.

"Boom! Boom! Pow!"

A little girls voice shouted in excitement in the kitchen as she was watching TV while another girl was frying an egg on the stove after preparing some toast for herself. A sigh of relief escaped Erika's lips as she looked around the kitchen, having neither of her adoptive parents in sight as that was the reason why both Etsuko and Kameko weren't on edge in that moment.

"Morning you two", a yawn escaped Erika's lips before looking into the fridge to find something to eat for breakfast.

"Morning Eri!", the five year old sister smile brightly as her green eyes beamed in glee before running up to her.

"Morning Erika", the middle and younger biological sister of Erika smiled softly as she put her egg on top of her toast.

"Eri! Inuyasha is playing on TV right now! Let's go watch it together!", Kameko smiled brightly as she looked up at her older sister, "Of course, let's go watch it together before school starts"

After quickly grabbing two bowls and filling them with milk and cereal, Erika sat down with Kameko on the couch and started to watch a few episodes of Inuyasha while they both enjoyed their breakfast together, enjoying the little moments of freedom without their adoptive parents suffocating presence, harsh and unkind words and violent and harmful actions. These are the little moments that Erika wouldn't change for the world and the only ones that kept her sane in such a household.

Once the three were finally finished with their breakfast, they grabbed their backpacks and walked away from their mansion.

"So, are you two ready for your first day of the new school year?", Erika asked both of her sisters as she held her black Nike backpack.

"Oh yeah, sure are", Etsuko smiled confidently towards her older sister, "This is going to be my year of victory of academics and basketball"

"And this is will be my year of art and dancing!", Kameko jumped up and down, smiling brightly towards her older sister as her big green eyes rivaled with the sun.

Erika smiled softly at her sisters confident personalities, knowing that they both got them from their father when he was still alive.

"See you two, make sure to be home by dinner", the blonde waved at both of her sisters before walking down the road to her school, wishing them good luck on their first day of school before running to her own.

"Alright! See ya!"

"See you Eri!"

The sounds of her sisters calling out to her gave Erika a slight ray of hope for today. A hope that she hadn't felt in years. A light that could be capable of helping her pull herself out of the darkness that she lived in for a long time in her life.

Maybe things would be different for her in a good way.

She could only hope.

The ethereal scenery with the cherry blossom trees made the morning even more beautiful to Erika's sunny eyes, a small smile crawling onto her lips as she walked into the unfamiliar school grounds with a slight anxious feeling in her chest.

"Today is a new school and new school year", the blonde reminded herself as she took a deep breath in and then out before stepping into the school grounds.

The students scattered throughout the hallways, holding flyers or objects from the different clubs and activities that would held after school.

Erika paid no mind to the crowd as she quickly walked out of the rear entrance with her mind somewhere else as she continued walking, ending up walking up to a metal door that was opened widely and showing a metal pavement path to a gymnasium.

In the path, Erika narrowed her eyes slightly as she saw a short male with messy orange hair wearing a red tracksuit standing at the very entrance of the gym opposite of her side.

"You're here too?!", Erika heard the orange haired boy shouted out in surprise and shock and with her curiosity getting the best of her, the blonde started to walk into the gymnasium to see what he was yelling and making a big deal about.

Another male with a stoic face, black hair and dark blue eyes and wearing the same red tracksuit as the orange haired male fell forward to the ground after losing his concentration, stumbling slightly to the ground.

Both the orange and dark haired boys stared at each other with such intensity, reflecting that something probably happened between the both of them earlier.

But the tension was soon cut with the ball falling on top of the stoic male's head.

"Ow"

"Wait a minute", Erika's eyes widened slightly as she looked at the stoic boy, a small smile crawling onto her lips as she looked at him, "Tobio?"

The stoic male turned his head to look at Erika, his ears being blessed with her sweet voice and his hardened piercing gaze softened at the sight of the familiar blonde who stood in front of him.

"Erika? Is it really you?", a small smile started to break the hardened exterior and stoic look for even a small second on the so called "King Of The Court".

"Wait!", the orange haired male suddenly shouted out, "You two know each other?!"

"Yes", Erika nodded her head, "Our schools were neighbors with each other and I often visited"

The King Of The Court turned to Shoyo, "We met last year, I forgot your name"

Erika could only let down a sweat drop as she knew this was common from Tobio, not always remembering the people's names but who they were when he had defeated them, such as this short ginger guy for example.

"Uh!", he deadpanned a look of defeat and annoyance, "M-My name is Shoyo Hinata, okay?!, the orange made continued speaking to him, "But I'm sure you don't even remember who I am, I mean you destroyed us in one game-"

Tobio turned away from him, cutting him off as he started to speak, "I remember exactly who you are"

His mind was somewhere else in time, remembering the times where he faced Shoyo's amateur abilities and team in Junior High, acknowledging his skills but being furious that he didn't use them in the game when they played against each other.

"Uh? What's with the silent treatment?", Shoyo asked as he looked at the setter in confusion.

"Tobio", Erika called out his name, snapping him back into reality for a split second before narrowing his eyes towards the ginger in front of him.

The sudden look caused Shoyo to jump for a second, tensing up his body while forming his arms into a defensive position, "What?! You wanna fight or something?!"

"Oh don't be a dumbass!"

This sudden response left Erika to sweat drop again, as she knew exactly who to blame for this kind of behavior that he learnt from in junior high.

Shoyo was dumbstruck by the nickname his so called teammate and enemy had already given him, before regaining his composure, "D-Don't make fun of me", he barked back, "I might have lost really bad the first time we met, but never again!"

The setter stuck his nose into the air, looking down at his once known opponent who was suddenly declaring his urge to win against him.

Erika didn't know what happened between the both of them that the short orange male to become really angry at Tobio, but she knew that this probably wasn't going to end very well if a rivalry like this continued to banter through the teammates work and their games.

"Eh look", Hinata pointed at Kageyama, "I came to get my revenge and now I find out you're going to be on the same team as me? How am I supposed to kick your butt that way?"

The setter quirked an eyebrow and formed his lips into a pout while Erika tried her best not to laugh at the shorter male, finding him quite cute in how he had the energy and mannerisms of a child.

"There's tons of better schools you could've gone too, why'd you have to pick this one?", Hinata kept on rambling with Kageyama being close to opening his mouth to say something, "Why didn't you go to one of those instead?"

The question itself caused Tobio to turn away, knitting his eyebrows together with a small frown crawling onto his lips before answering the shortie's question.

"I applied to the school with the best team, but", the answer itself made Shoyo gulp nervously while Erika looked at him in curiosity, "didn't make it"

'Makes sense', Erika spoke to herself inwardly with a soft sigh of defeat, even though she hadn't seen Tobio in awhile she knew what he was like with school and volleyball, so of course this was bound to happen one way or another.

Shoyo Hinata could only be left really dumbfounded at the answer he and Erika received, "You didn't", Shoyo quirked an eyebrow as he looked at Tobio, "They rejected the King Of The Court?"

The sudden nickname made the setter grit his teeth with a low growl escaping his throat with his dark blue piercing gaze glared at Shoyo.

"Never call me that, ever!"

Erika and Shoyo looked at Tobio's furious face, something in his voice showed a lot of pain and regret which made the blonde's heart shatter slightly.

This wasn't the Tobio she remembered.

"Who knew that the setter from Kitagawa First would end up at our school?"

Another masculine voice started speak outside of the gym. It sounding so sweet and yet held so much authority, Erika thought he sounded like quite an interesting person.

"He better not be too cocky or I'll have to pound him one day"

Another masculine voice spoke, giving the once known Nationals star the atmosphere of a former delinquent turned to person trying to impress some girl and giving himself a fresh start from his old life style.

"Get a rest Tanaka, you don't have to threaten everybody"

Another masculine voice spoke, it sounded so sweet and gentle, like honey on Erika's tongue. This person sounded like a soft individual, with a motherly or fatherly figure to some people around him.

"What're you gonna do about it, huh? Yeah, that's what I thought"

Both boys and Erika turned to see the three other male students walking into the gymnasium.

"Uh hello", Tobio was the first one to greet them as they stood in front of them, the middle guy and the guy on the left giving them warm and friendly smiles with their welcoming attitude and atmosphere while the buzz cut male on the left gave a somewhat wannabe intimidating look that could only make Erika laugh inwardly at his ridiculous his face was looking in that moment.

"Well well well, now what do we have here?", the buzz cut guy tried to speak but was cut off as soon his eyes laid themselves on Erika and the student in the middle grabbing him by the collar and pulling him back.

"You Kageyama?", the middle guy asked with a friendly smile, walking up to him along with the other two guys by his side, "Yeah", he nodded in reply.

"It's nice to meet you", he spoke with a friendly tone in his voice while the other guy stood next to him, "pretty tall, aren't ya?"

Erika watched how Shoyo squatted to the ground, sneaking around the other three team players as they were focused on Tobio. She wanted to say something, she wanted to join in on the conversations and she wanted to make new friends, but half the time (thanks to mainly her shyness), the words always got stuck at the back of her throat or they wouldn't be interested in talking to someone as boring as herself.

"First impressions are always everything, Suga", the buzz cut male gritted his teeth keeping up his hilariously too hard intimidating expression, "You're a third year, so you have to establish dominance"

"Stop it Tanaka, you look stupid", the middle spoke, trying to establish discipline with his teammate.

Erika tried her best not to laugh at the stupid faces the guy known as "Tanaka" was making, but she just had to hold it in.

"Hey, what're you laughing at missy?", Tanaka looked at Erika trying his best to stop a soft blush from crawling onto his cheeks as he looked at her, causing the blonde girl to snap back into reality as a shy blush came to her cheeks realizing that she was standing in front of a few strangers, "Oh it's nothing, don't worry about it"

"Wait a minute", the middle guy spoke for a minute, his dark brown hues scanning her for a moment, "Haven't we seen you on TV before?", the other guy known as "Suga" spoke out as his green eyes looked at her familiar face.

"Wait a minute", Tanaka's eyes widened suddenly as he looked at her, "You're Ms Nationals in volleyball, aren't you?"

The sudden question made Erika look down at the polished wooden ground of the gymnasium for a second, "Y-Yeah, I am. E-Erika Koume", she introduced herself with a small slight blush on her cheeks as her hands gently gripped the ends of her school jumper sleeves.

"No way!", Shoyo suddenly blurted out, his chocolate hues widened and jaw dropping to the floor as he looked at Erika, "You're Ms Nationals?! The Ms Nationals?!"

"I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you earlier! Please forgive me!", the orange haired male started to ramble on apologetically, "W-Wait, it's okay you don't have to worry about it", Erika's face become flustered as she nervously waved her arms to stop Shoyo's nervous filled movements.

"Whoa, that's really cool having you join our school", a small smile crawled onto Suga's lips as his soft gaze landed on Erika, "Yeah, it's nice to meet you. Maybe you could join our team or something", the brunette male laughed lightly in a joking tone as he looked towards her.

"Y-Yeah, it's nice to meet you too", Erika smiled sweetly as she looked at the other three boys before they carried on their conversation with Tobio Kageyama and Erika Koume.

"Hey guys!", Shoyo suddenly shouted, greeting his new teammates that he would be playing alongside soon enough.

"So how tall are you?", the brunette male and the other two looked at Tobio, not paying any mind or even noticing the shorter male besides them, "six feet", the former Kitagawa First student answered them honestly.

"Whoa"

"Six feet? That's badass"

The older high school students chartered excitedly with Shoyo trying but failing miserably to capture all of their attention.

"Hey!"

The sudden shout suddenly put everyone's focus on Shoyo Hinata.

"Hey! It's you!", Tanaka shouted as he pointed a finger towards the orange haired male, "You're the shorty!"

The middle male pulled up the flyer to look up the rest of the applicants names, "Wait a minute. So the other applicant goes by the name of Shoyo Hinata", the captain lifted his head up to look at the shorter male, "I guess that's you?"

"Huh?"

"It's just, kinda surprising that's all", he admitted as he stared at the two were rivals in their past games, until a small smile crawled onto their lips, "But, well hey, you guys both chose Karasuno"

"Guess so", Shoyo answered as he stood next to Tobio.

"Didn't mean to freak you out, it's just you made a big impression last year", the silver haired male smiled genuinely as he looked at the both of them.

"Yeah, you were tiny and all over the place but you really had some spunk", Tanaka smiled brightly as he looked at the shorter male, "Whoa, thanks a lot"

"And not to mention that jump of yours", Suga held his chin with his hand, stretching his thump and index finger across his jaw while closing his hazel orbs.

Tanaka waved his hand a few inches over Shoyo, "It's too bad you haven't had a growth spurt yet though", the buzz cut analyzed, making the ginger male growl slightly in frustration at this as he gritted his teeth and balled his hands into small little fists, "I know! I may be small but I've got talent! I'll be Karasuno's before you know it!"

The stoic setter looked at the smaller player with his eyes widened slightly before gritting his teeth and furrowing them into another deadly glare. Even the dedication to be the ace surprised Erika a bit herself, and somehow right now, she couldn't wait to see it happen.

"Damn!", Tanaka shouted, "Already got your eyeballs on the ace position do ya?! Somebody's got kahooties!", the shout made Shoyo tense up slightly as he gritted his teeth as well.

"Well there's nothing wrong with shooting for the stars, is there? Right?", the silver hair smiled softly towards Shoyo. His words making the orange haired male smile brightly towards his senpai, "Yeah! I'll do my best!"

"Okay then", Kageyama spoke out as his piercing dark blue gems orbs towards the ginger male, "Now that you've sworn to become the ace, you better be prepared to back it up", the words the once known King Of The Court spoke caused the smile to vanish from Shoyo's face. "If you're not careful, you'll waste another three years"

The words Tobio started to speak caused Shoyo to turn around and face him, his sunny brown hues glaring towards the setter, "Excuse me?" A light growl escaped the gingers lips as he turned to face the stoic male.

A soft sigh came from the captains lips, "Was that really necessary Kageyama?"

The two past rivals glared at each other with such intensity and hatred for one another, "I did everything I could", Shoyo spoke out to Tobio, before looking at the ground. His mind filled with the memories of his team in middle school and the humiliating lost they had in their very first and last game.

"Look, I've done a lot. Stop putting me down!", Shoto's teeth grinder together as felt the blood inside him boiling, his brown hues still glaring at the setter that defeated him in the last game they played, but the setter was still looking down at him, as he were nothing but a mere subject of his own regality and status even abilities and skills in volleyball.

"Relax guys", the captain spoke as his hand was cushioned on the back of his head, "You know you're not enemies anymore, right? Volleyball's supposed to bring people together-"

"I want to play me right now!"

Shoyo's sudden challenging declaration made Tanaka tense up, "Whoa! Watch is punk! Don't you know Daichi's talking to you?!"

"What're we gonna play?", the jet black haired setter asked the ginger haired player, a taunting yet serious tone coating his voice, "Volleyball, what the heck else is there?", Shoyo shouted back, his blood boiling even further at the question his enemy asked him.

"How do play volleyball one on one?"

"Like passes and stuff"

"How does anybody win at that?"

The constant arguing and bickering between the two first years made Daichi's sweet friendly smile slowly start to fade, trying his best not to lose his cool between the newest teammates.

"The kids got a point!", Tanaka shouted out to Shoyo, showing Tobio was correct for once.

"What's with all the noise in here?", another voice asked, making the students turn to the entrance to see the vice principal of the school walking into the gymnasium.

"Oh darn! It's VP!", the buzz cut male's face tensed up, "Be quiet!", the silver haired male whisper shouted to the Tanaka trying his best to make him behave, "Why don't you be quiet?", Tanaka snarked back at Suga, becoming even more tense as his body and facial expressions became stiff in the moment.

"Are you boys fighting in here?", the vice principal asked, his dull voice echoing across the gymnasium rooms as he looked at the teammates currently present in the building at that moment.

"Nope", Daichi responded politely to him, "We're just working as hard as always vice principal, right?", he turned back to the two bickering first years who were still glaring at each other. "We better watch ourselves around the vice principal, that guys always waiting for us to slip up", Tanaka whispered to the first years, warning them in advance.

"Listen to me! I can handle whatever you send!", Shoyo declared to Tobio, not taking any consideration or account of Tanaka's warning or even listening to it.

"Dude!", Tanaka whispered to him, urging him in frustration and fear to listen to him.

"Listen jerk, I only received one serve from you last year!", Shoyo lifted his arm, pointing his finger towards Tobio still keeping the fierce expression on his face, "I am not the same person I was"

The only response that came out was a doubtful sound from the setter's lips, lifting up his face as he continued to look down at him, "Not the same person huh?", he started to walk away a few steps, the soles of his black shoes creating small pattering sounds that echoed across the polished gymnasium floor, picking up the same volleyball that hit his head and showing it to the shortie.

"Well I've improved a bit in the last year too", the confidence that once overwhelmed Tobio turned into arrogance, a sinister smirk crawling onto his lips as he looked at the shorter player.

Erika looked at Kageyama, a fearful chill running down her spine as it reminded her so much of the cocky and arrogant behavior her adoptive parents showed on TV whether they were in a match or interview, well before their careers were finished for good.

"Alright alright, that's enough smack talk you guys", Daichi's friendly and warm smile was starting to strain due to having to fake it to be professional in front of the vice principal. "They're both first years, aren't they?", the elder man asked crossing his arms as he had an unamused look on his face.

But the first years didn't listen to a single word or warning their captain gave them.

Shoyo crouched down slightly, straightening his arms so he could prepare himself for any receives that the grouchy arrogant setter would send to him. The setter took a deep breath in and out as he bounced the ball to the ground before looking at the shorter male, "Get ready"

With that fair warning Tobio threw the ball up, sending it flying into the air and jumping up into the air, his hand hitting the ball with such terrifying force.

With barely any time to react at all, Shoyo quickly dodged the attack falling to the side as his tiny body hit the polished wooden ground beneath him.

The serve left the senpai's in shock of the power and control, it was quite a nasty serve and no doubt if he trained it, it could become quite a monster and thorn in the side of the other teams playing.

'He's intimating Oikawa's monster serve'

the blonde thought to herself as she looked at Tobio, being quite flabbergasted at the growth in the setter's natural talent, but that growth and talent turned him into a dictator, not a real leader.

"Pathetic", the King spat out arrogantly , "How's that different from last year?"

The shorter male glared at the setter, before standing up from the ground and getting back into his normal position, "One more try"

"Okay, now cut it out!", the captain tried to put his foot down, trying to get the first years to stop their mini match with each other, "I see the new recruits have no respect for their captain", the vice principal gave an annoyed look to Daichi, being unimpressed but not surprised by this kind of behavior with his new students.

"Tobio, cut it out!", Erika called out to her old friend but it was no use now, he had already thrown the ball into the air and follows it up with another monster jump serve.

'So it really is true, huh?'

Erika could feel her heart shatter slightly, she didn't want to believe but it slapped her in the face. A childhood friend she missed so much, had changed for the worse.

Her golden orbs narrowed slightly as she looked at Tobio with ferocity, before being surprised at Shoyo's speed as he was on time to get the receive, but it ended up backfiring as the receive bounced from his arms and into his face.

"If this keeps up-", before the vice principal could finish his sentence, the volleyball smacked his cheek causing his toupee to fly off of his head into the air, with the wig eventually landing on Daichi's head. A look of shock (or even being close to breaking out into laughter for Tanaka's case) were painted all over the students face, knowing that they were officially fucked.

Erika did her best not to laugh in those deafening few moments of silence, before Tobio broke the silence himself, "Oh man, that was a toupee?"

"You just now figured that out? I noticed it at the entrance ceremony", Shoyo asked as an amused look snuck onto his face as he looked at Tobio while Daichi removed the wig from his head.

Tanaka tried his best to hold in his laughter as he looked at both of the first years, "Dude, shut up, it's not even that funny"

With that, Erika and Tanaka both broke out into laughter as they stood next to each other.

"You shut up, moron!", Suga shouted to Tanaka and Erika, trying to get them to stop laughing on the stop.

"Captain, a word please", the vice principal looked away and Daichi looking at him, a deadpanned look of anger and annoyance painting all over both of their faces.

✮ ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮

The late afternoon soon arrived, with the others still waiting in the gym with anticipation in awaiting their punishment from the vice principal.

Daichi stood in front of his teammates, his arms crossed as he stood in a posture to take over authority, "Luckily we're not in trouble, he doesn't want an apology". A sigh of relief from the other team players lips from hearing the good news for now, "But we have been sworn to secrecy"

Shoyo and Tobio glared at each other momentarily before Daichi started speaking again, "And as for you two"

"If you handled the serve, it wouldn't have handled in the first place", Tobio growled out in anger towards Shoyo, "You're the same klutz you were last year. I can't believe I thought you would be a challenge"

"You don't know when to quit, do you?", Shoyo shouted out to the setter, still being angry at the behavior he was showing towards him.

The captain growled in anger at the behavior the two were still displaying before finally losing his cool.

"Can it!"

Daichi's loud voice silenced the two arguing first years and rivals, turning their own along with Tanaka, Suga and Erika's attention towards him.

"There's something I want to tell you", the captain started to speak, "I don't know what your reasons were for choosing to come to this high school, but I assume you came to win"

"Yeah!", Shoyo answered honestly, "Yes, obviously", Tobio replied as well.

"Up until a few years ago, Karasuno's volleyball team could compete with the best of them. They even made it to nationals once", Daichi started to speak, with Erika's head looking down as she remembered her "glory" days in nationals.

"But these days, we're eighth in the prefecture. Not terrible, but not good either. But people talk, they call us "wingless crows". I remember when Karasuno played in the Spring High National Tournament, I was a student in a nearby school who just happened to be in the neighborhood, watching them fight those tough opponents in that huge gym in Tokyo, they gave me chills"

The captain recalled those moments, opening his eyes to look at his teammates in front of him. Shoyo Hinata looked at the bigger and taller male, realizing he was just the same way watching the same Tiny Giant when he played in Nationals with Karasuno on that the screen on television being shown through the window when biking with his friends to go to karaoke. It all made a huge impact on him, and he would never forget that.

"Let's go back one more time", Daichi announced, making a huge impact on Shoyo Hinata and Erika Koume, who felt a ray of hope in their hearts through Daichi's meaningful speech.

"The nationals huh?", Tobio harshly injected through the captains speech, "Plenty of high schools talk about making it there one day, doesn't mean they'll go"

Tanaka stuttered, trying to get Tobio to shut up or not to say those words around their captain as he was already at his wits end.

"I know what you mean", Daichi agreed with the younger setter, "But I'm dead serious"

With those words coming from their captains mouth, a deadpanned look remained on Tobio's face as he knitted his furrowed brows and curled them into a pouted frown, while Tanaka glared slightly at Tobio, Suga with a smile on his soft looking face and Shoyo paying no mind to him as he was still looking at Daichi.

"If we wanna get there, we need to be cohesive unit. That means no more run-ins with the VP for one thing", the captain started to walk up to the two, with Tanaka and Suga walking away knowing that shit was about to get real, but also watching if anything good was about to go down.

"It's not like I'm telling you to be best friends or anything like that", a scary look started to appear on his face, further terrifying everyone in the room, "I know back in middle school you two might've been adversaries on opposite sides of the net, but let me be clear, you're on one side now and you need to make peace with that. Is that clear?"

The scary look of anger on Daichi's face made even Erika shake in her boots and sent another chill down her spine, knowing that she shouldn't even mess with the guy.

"I don't care how good you are, or how determined you are to play hard", Daichi spoke as he put his hands on both Tobio and Shoyo's shoulders, "Anyone who lets a petty rivalry get in the way of the teams success", the captain handed two papers with writing on the two as a warning as he pushed them out of the gymnasium, "Get's the boot"

"You two are banned from participating in club activities until you learn to think of yourselves as teammates", with that warning and further notice, Daichi closed the club doors on Shoyo and Tobio outside.

The two could only let out a scream of panic for a slight second. They were banned from doing the activities of a club in the sports they loved so much, so of course they would freak out.

Erika could hear their screams outside, making her look at the captain as she leaned against the wall folding her arms together, "Daichi, are you sure this is really a good idea? The idea of forcing two people to cooperate like this isn't always the wisest choice", the once known nationals champion spoke, at the bigger and taller male right in front of her:

"Please let me in captain! Please let me play volleyball with you! I'll find a way to get along with Kageyama, I promise", the orange haired male outsides shouts and pleading could be heard outside the gymnasium, "Come on, I'm really sorry! I'll do anything"

Suga could hear the shouting outside, looking at the team captain and his friend, "She does have a point Daichi, I mean we do need players. You can't build a team by threatening people to cooperate, that takes time", Suga agreed with the Nationals star.

Daichi stood with his back turning to the door and his arms still crossed together as his ears were deaf to Shoyo's begging outside, "Yeah I know, but", he replied to his friend and fellow teammate.

"Move you idiot!", Kageyama shouted to Hinata, pushing him out of the way before standing in front of the door himself.

"I apologize! I won't pick anymore fights with him! Please let me be on the team!"

With those words, the door starting to open giving Kageyama a small hopeful look but was instantly replaced with fear as he saw another scary look coming from Daichi with half of his face peaking out through the doors, his eye staring straight into Kageyama to get the truth out of him.

"You mean that?", after hearing the captains question, more fear and irritation showed on Tobio's face as he gritted his teeth and twitched his eyes as he stared at Daichi's face until the words finally came out his mouth begrudgingly but honestly, "I can do it. I'll share the court with him if I have too, but I still wanna do it all myself. Every spike, receive and set in the game"

"What is wrong with you?!"

The answer Kageyama gave him made the captain laugh as he stood up, "I wasn't expecting you to be that honest with me, hey well, it's good enough for now", he looked at the two first years who were still standing outside, "But you know, in volleyball it's against the rules to drop, carry or touch the ball twice in a row. In other words, this game is impossible to play alone"

The response from the captain made a small growl of frustration escape Kageyama's lips before Daichi gave them a warm smile and closing the metal doors in front of them once again.

✮ ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮

With the permission of the captain himself (as she didn't want to come home to face her adoptive parents wrath once again), Erika stayed behind to watch the team play with each other and even help and teach them in any way that she could.

The ball bouncing on the wooden floor or on the other players arms echoed across the gymnasium walls.

Erika's golden eyes watched how the teams were playing with each other, Suga was setting the ball for the spikers to hit against a wooden board for the other players to practice in receiving it. Spotting the little mistakes and weaknesses in their team play as she had played this game ever since she was a child and had many people teaching her how to fix her mistakes and errors that she made during big games.

The sound of the metal door opening and Tanaka's footsteps walking to the door snapped Erika back into reality, as if seeing a beautiful enchantress or queen from a fairy tale story, the nationals player's heart skipped a beat slightly at the sight of the girl who just walked in.

"Hey Kiyoko", Tanaka greeted her with a bright smile, "Thanks for your hard work, oh let me get that", the buzz cut male offered as he looked at the cooler box she was holding, "No thanks, I can carry it myself", the black haired beauty politely refused his offer as she barely looked at him.

"Okay then, you look super gorgeous today", Tanaka smiled brightly as he complimented her but she barely paid any mind to him as she walked into the gymnasium. With that, the buzz cut male smiled brightly as he held himself in his arms and a chill ran down his spine, "Oh man, she's so pretty when she ignores me"

With a light giggle of excitement and a giddy looking smile on Suga's face, he shut the metal doors closed with Shoyo's face being bright red as a tomato after witnessing Kiyoko's beauty up close.

The girl in glasses alluring looks and soothing voice almost sent Erika to cloud 9 as she continued to stare at the third year in both admiration and enchantment. Oh god, this girl made her heart skip a beat at just even one glance.

✮ ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮

It was already night time, the stars started to twinkle in the dark blue sky and the pale moon light started to shine brightly.

The lights were still on in the gymnasium before the whistle started to blow with all the team players yelling, "Good work, everybody!"

"Oh shit, I have to get home", Erika looked at the time on her phone with wide eyes, she walked out of the stadium and started to run back home since it was just a half minute walk to school but fifteen minutes with jogging and enough determination.

When she had reached the gates of her mansion, the blonde quickly pushed them open before squeezing her body through and running to the main door, listening to hear out any noises that belonged to her adoptive parents, sisters or objects. When the coast was clear, Erika quickly opened the door and walked in, exhaling through her mouth and nose a sigh of relief as no one was around before sprinting into her bedroom and changing out from her school uniform and into her PJ's.

Today was quite a first day of school, but now with that she would help the others tomorrow if needed and maybe rejoin the boys team again.

'They don't seem so bad'

Erika snuggled her big white pillow to her chest, holding it close to her as she thought of the boys in the volleyball team and even gave her a little bit of joy to reconnect with an old friend. But he seemed so different and he had changed so much, and not for better either.

Maybe she would ask him what happened and what caused him to change his behavior so much from the past two years when she didn't see him.

'Did something happen?'

She knew she wouldn't get answers too soon and she wouldn't cross his boundaries, but she wanted to know what caused him to be this way.

She was going to talk to him tomorrow and figure it out one way or another.

With a soft yawn, she had eventually fallen into a deep sleep that hadn't taken her hours to finally succumb into after so long from many sleepless nights and tears that kept her away for hours on the pain inflicted on her in her life.

Tomorrow was a new day.

A new and brighter and sunnier day to practice and play volleyball.

-

Yay!

Another chapter has been finished!

This took way longer than needed to do but I'm glad I finished it lmao!

This is episode 2 basically but more will come along and a few chapter will maybe have episodes mixed into them if I'm lazy or fits the story!

Yes, Erika got a mini crush on Kiyoko cuz she's bi and we stan a bi queen! 😔✋🏻

And Tobio (and a few more boys and girls too) have (or will have) a crush on Erika!

And I feel like adding some angst to Tobio and Erika's relationship here at first?

But I'm not sure cuz my baby has had her heart broken enough!

Anyways!

See you guys in the next chapter!

Byeonara!


	16. CHAPTER 1◟A FORMIDABLE ALLY (7)

Beep!

Beep!

Beep!

The next morning had arrived even faster than usual to Erika's liking, making her groan out in annoyance as she sat up on the comfortable mattress of her bed and pulled off the warm and soft blankets and sheets that covered her well built body while her hands gently rubbed her tired face and eyes.

"Erika", a familiar voice called her name with a sweet honey like tone oozing out as she knocked on the door, making the blonde flinch and her eyes widen in fear.

She knew that she was in deep trouble now.

"Y-Yes mom?", she replied obediently yet fearfully as she opened her bedroom door, being greeted with her adoptive mother's slightly wrinkled face with a sweet smile, but in her dark colored eyes they held a lot of rage and hatred.

"My dear, you came home late and you know your usual curfew is usually extended as you have practice", the mother started to speak as she folded her arms, the sweet smile mixing with a sinister atmosphere still remaining on her face.

As if the truth was being forced out of her, Erika looked at her mother with a watery eyes, "Mother you know I don't want to join volleyball again after what happened with my team, I just don't have it in me anymore"

The words Erika was speaking made the once famous volleyball champion's eyes twitch in anger and annoyance, "That doesn't give an excuse", she growled out angrily.

"Please mother, I really can't do it anymore. I promise I'll do anything, I just can't-"

Slap!

The impact of the harsh slap on her cheek made Erika's head turn to side as her golden brown eyes widened slightly before they turned to see Kuma's face red and her eyes looking at her with fury.

"That is still no excuse", the dark haired woman screamed, forcefully pushing Erika down to the floor before her hand balled into a fist and punched her in the face.

The blonde girl whimpered and curled her body up, readying herself for the impact of her adoptive mothers beatings and physically aggressive behavior towards her after losing the last round and championship in nationals.

Loud footsteps were heard echoing as they walked up the stairs of the mansion and running to up to Erika's bedroom.

"Hey!", Isamu shouted as he opened the door, "What's with all the racket?!"

"Isamu", Kuma growled towards her husband, "Just teaching this child a lesson in making excuses for her lazy ass of a successor", the woman's dark hateful eyes glared sharply towards the girl who laid down on the floor, holding back the terrified sobs in her throat and curling her body into a ball to prepare herself for any kind of physical abuse coming her way.

The older man sneered at the sight, "How pathetic, nothing but a punching bag rather than a successor. Keep teaching her a lesson Kuma", the other once known champion in volleyball growled as he walked out of the room, his eyes glaring at Erika before slamming the door of her bedroom shut, leaving both adoptive mother and adoptive daughter in the room.

"You're literally the worst!", Kuma screamed out as her leg made contact with her stomach, making the blonde girl almost scream out in pain.

"I can't believe I actually adopted you when there were better choices!"

Punch!

"If I hadn't adopted you! Then your sisters would be living the rest of their miserable lives on the streets and your lazy ass would be sitting on a throne!"

Punch!

Kick!

The insults and words that the older woman threw at Erika would always leave more scars on her heart and mind, than the slaps, punches, kicks and more beatings and physical abuse would on her body.

Erika had her body curled to the floor as soft sobs and whimpers were threatening to escape her throat. The pain was so unbearable, but she had to take it for her little sisters or they wouldn't evens have a roof over their head by now.

When Kuma had finally finished, she looked at the sight of her adopted daughter curling her body with tears falling down her now slightly bruised cheeks, a sneer crawling onto her face as she looked down at her, "How pathetic, and I call you my daughter"

The older woman walked up to the door, her blooded and busted hands reaching towards the knob before turning back to her for a second, "And clean yourself up and tell your friends you were too rough on your lessons in martial arts and volleyball practices"

With those final words of warning, she slammed the door loudly making Erika jump up slightly before she slowly and weakly picked her beaten up body from the floor.

The nationals champion sighed softly as she used her hand to wipe away her tears before taking off her set of pajama shorts and t-shirt before turning her head to the side, looking at her beaten face and body that was starting to scar slightly but not too noticeably.

After walking into her bathroom, Erika hopped into the shower and turned the water temperature to cold to help wake her up, soothing her aching muscles and washing off any trace of blood from the beatings.

After rinsing herself off, the blonde girl gently dragged her favorite vanilla scented soap across her body, letting the scent and suds cleanse her physical and emotional well being from the draining toll of Isamu and Kuma's damage words and actions that carried out onto her heart, mind and body. When she had soon finished with washing her body, she started to wash her sunny blonde hair with her favorite shampoo and conditioner to help herself feel fresh and clean, despite with what had happened earlier.

And after finally being finished with the shower, Erika hopped out and wrapped her curvy and slightly bruised body in a big white fluffy towel, letting it hug her curves and big bust and ass that any boy or girl could find themselves drooling over.

While letting her hair air dry and brushing out the knots, Erika started to brush her teeth and washing and drying off her face before grabbing her foundation and dipping the little sponge into the makeup, smearing it onto her face slightly to blend in with her porcelain skin tone.

Once she was finished with fixing up her face and making sure there was not even one trace of a bruise, cut or anymore injuries on her face and body, Erika started to quickly put on her school uniform and added a pair of black leggings to hide any noticeable scars on her legs and with finishing off her look by putting her hair in a high ponytail and slipping her school shoes onto her feet, Erika ran out of her mansion after grabbing her school backpack and bento box and headed to school.

The chilly breeze of the morning air caused Erika to shiver and shudder slightly as she pulled her phone from her pocket to check the time.

5:17 a.m.

It looks like she had some extra time to kill before class, maybe if she was lucky she could find Tobio and catch up with him after all these years of not seeing him since she didn't it with him the day before, and maybe it would be nice to be able talk to a friend once more.

✮ ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮

The early morning sky was painted with a light blue and pale yellow hue as if replicating from an old renaissance old painting, with Erika body dragged itself to the school and her heavy breathing and a soft yawn being turned into fog.

As she was about to put her earphones into her ear, she heard another sound inside the boys volleyball gymnasium suddenly catching her attention instead.

The sounds of a ball bouncing up and down and feet squeaking on the polished wooden floors of the gymnasium started to act as some sort of magnet to the blonde as she found her legs and her feet starting to move closer towards the building. Her lion like eyes catching the sight of the lights being already on through the high windows and hearing voices and sounds of someone body and feet hitting against the floor along with a volleyball bouncing inside the building.

"Damn it! Stop dragging your feet!"

Erika could hear Tobio shouting towards Shoyo as he was making his usual unrealistic expectations and demands towards his teammates, just as it was rumored when he was still known as the King Of The Court in Kitagawa Daichi.

'So maybe it was true after all'

"What happened to those reflexes you had?! Get it together!", Tobio kept on continuously shouting to his teammate as Erika started to silently open the metal doors of the gymnasium before discreetly slipping her body through, looking to see her friend and the ginger male who laying down on the floor, groaning slightly before using his arms to carry himself up from the ground.

"All I've been doing is receives", Shoyo pointed out to Tobio before slowly standing up on the ground, "Kageyama! We're running out of time! I wanna jump around! I wanna do some spikes!", the orange haired male shouted angrily to the grumpy setter, "Well that's too bad!", the darker haired male shouted back at him, showing he wasn't going to comply to the shorter male's wishes any time sooner.

But before Erika could even stop the two from arguing any further, Tanaka had already beaten her to the punch as he yelled out at the two bickering first years, "That's enough!"

This had silenced the both them as they turned all of their attention towards the buzz cut male who had his arms folded and his eyes narrowed slightly towards them, "A word to the wise. Daichi's a nice guy most of the time but you will not like him when he's mad, trust me"

The subtle warning itself from Tanaka caused the scary flashbacks from yesterday to appear in all three of the first years minds, giving them nothing but an unpleasantly fearful atmosphere around them.

"Ya we know"

"If he were to find out that we're practicing early, I'm so dead", Tanaka spoke to himself and the other two fearfully, knowing the consequences of making their team captain angry before looking up at his younger teammates and putting back on his tough guy act, "Uh, not that I'm afraid of him or anything. Of course not", he put his hands on his hips and started to shake his head, "That would be ridiculously ridiculous". This tone and attitude change in Tanaka caused both Tobio and Shoyo to look at each other in confusion for a second.

After taking some time and finally mustering up the courage inside of her to speak, Erika stepped into the gymnasium building with the heels of her school clicking and echoing on the floor.

"Hey guys"

The sudden greeting of Erika's angelic voice, the presence of her hot body and her alluring atmosphere caused all of their attention to be directed towards her, causing a bright smile and blush to appear on Shoyo and Tanaka's face and a small but noticeable pink tint on Tobio's cheeks.

"It's Ms Nationals!", the buzz cut smiled brightly as he found himself starting to drown in the sea of her divine beauty, while Shoyo's tiny started to bounce all around the gymnasium in excitement besides meeting her yesterday and Tobio remained calm even though his thoughts were being driven wild by the girl who was standing right in front of him and his new teammates.

"If you guys want to practice and work on some skills, I can help out", Erika bent down to the ground, grabbing one of the many stray volleyballs from the ground and held it in the air with one hand, "I will be happy to teach you too if you want, Shoyo"

With that sweet smile appearing on the National champions soft plump lips, the orange haired male could feel his heart starting to beat at an erratic pace with his signature wide and toothy grin crawling onto his face.

"Thank you so much Erika!", the shorter male bowed politely in her direction, "I will do my best for you! I will honor every teaching sessions that we have together!"

"Whoa, you don't have too", a small giggle escaped from Erika's lips along with a soft blush tinting her rosy cheeks.

The sight alone made the darker haired male feel a sweet fluttering feeling set off in his stomach that gave him nothing but absolute joy and explosive passion setting off inside him, like fireworks in the night sky. He's never felt this way before, expect when he was playing volleyball but that was it. What was this girl doing to him? And why did he hate it so much when his previous rival and current enemy was now getting her attention and making her laugh and smile like this?

'What the hell is wrong with me?'

The sound of the metal doors opening once again put everyone in silence as they looked in its direction fearing that it could be Daichi. "Uh huh, Just as I suspected", the voice of another familiar player echoed across the gymnasium, spotting the four with a soft smile on his face.

"Suga"

"Hey", the silver haired male greeted, "How'd you know?", Tanaka groaned slightly as he looked at his friend and teammate who sat on the floor and started to take off his shoes, "Come on, something was obviously up. I mean why else would you offer to take the key to the gym when you've always showed up to practice at the last minute?", the silvery haired male pointed out.

This caused panic to wash over Tanaka as he clenched his teeth and looked down at the floor in worry for a slight second.

"Don't worry, I won't tell. Your secret's safe with me", the third waved his hand slightly in the air, his words and tone in his voice being sincere and honest. "A clandestine crash course, that's pretty exciting", the other setter admitted while the other three players sighed in relief.

"So Erika, what will you be teaching us?", the orange haired male smiled brightly as looked up at her, "Well we do need to work on your receives, but after that I will be teaching you more cool ways to spike", the nationals star smiled sweetly to the shorter male in front of her, causing him to pout slightly before giving in, "Alright"

✮ ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮

6:43 a.m.

The sounds of Tanaka's shouting echoed across the gymnasium walls as he jumped up in the air, spiking the ball that Tobio set into the air onto the other side before he cheered.

Erika could see how Shoyo was staring at the two in envy, wishing that he was the one spiking the ball like that as well on the other side, not even noticing the ball Sugawara had sent his way as it hit him on top of his head.

"Hey, you're not paying attention", Sugawara scolded Shoyo trying to get him to focus but it was futile.

"Hey! I wanna hit too!", Shoyo shouted towards Tobio, not paying any mind to Suga or Erika in that moment, "Throw me a ball here, Kageyama!"

The raven haired male turned to look at the ginger male, his dark blue eyes piercing towards him as he watched Shoyo smile brightly while lifting his arms up in the air, "You're all about your sets aren't ya?! Go ahead, set one over this way!"

The setter kept on glaring sharply towards Shoyo, listening but not responding to him.

"Come on! Just one! For practice!", the short orange male smiled brightly, "I don't think he wants too", Sugawara politely interjected to him, "Please?"

"No!", the setter turned around, coldly and harshly rejecting Shoyo, leaving him, Sugawara and Tanaka in shock at the behavior he was displaying.

"Aw man! Don't be like that!", Shoyo shouted back at Kageyama waving his and chopping his one arm into the air, "Yeah dude! Send him one!", Tanaka agreed with Shoyo.

Tobio turned around, holding the ball into his hand and sending it his way, while Shoyo tried to receive the ball with both of his arms it was sent to the side, letting the both of them look at it before the raven haired male looked at his shorter teammate.

"I sent that one head on", Tobio looked at the orange haired male, "You receive to make a set and attack! Don't run your mouth if you can't follow through", he scolded Shoyo before walking over to the ball and picking it up from the floor.

"I'll be sending all the sets to Tanaka on Saturday! Leave all the attacking to him! You just do your best to not get in my way!"

With those words coming out of Tobio's mouth, Erika couldn't stay silent anymore.

"Hey, you gotta stop being such a jerk if you want him to improve Tobio"

With those words that she spoke, Tobio froze on the spot after picking up the volleyball that he sent to Shoyo, "I'm being realistic Erika, he's terrible at receiving and if he can't receive then he won't be able to spike"

"I know that you idiot", Erika sighed as she massaged her temples with her fingertips before looking at him, "But teaching someone like this doesn't get them anywhere and treating people like this is going to make them not even want to work with you"

Shoyo looked at Erika with a softened face and a soft smile on his lips being grateful that she was standing up to him, "Wait, Kageyama. As soon as I get good enough at receiving, will you at least throw a few sets to me too?"

"I'll set to whoever I have too to win", the grumpy setter declared to Shoyo making him growl underneath his breath in frustration while Tobio turned his head back to face him, looking straight at him with not one bit of hesitation in what he said to him next.

"It's just, I highly doubt that person is going to be you"

"Tobio!", Erika shouted at her childhood friend, finally seeing the dictator everyone described him to be and hoping and praying that it wasn't true.

"Watch your mouth", Tanaka warned the setter, "How's ever going to learn if you don't set to him?", the third year asked with a frown on his face.

Shoyo looked down at the ground, growling to himself in anger as Erika turned around and noticed, "Hey are you-"

"It's almost seven, we should clean up"

With those words, realization hit the second and third year.

"Oh crap", Tanaka spoke first before he and Sugawara dispersed, "Hurry up! We can't leave any trace!"

"We should find a mop!"

"Shoyo", Erika put her hands onto the orange boys shoulders, letting him look up at her with his eyes full of fury and frustration but they had softened when they looked up at her face.

"Meet me by the gym at lunch, I'll teach you how to receive", the blonde girl spoke to the orange haired male, giving him a sweet smile before helping the others pick up the balls and clean up the gym so they wouldn't leave a trace of any sort of this secret practice.

✮ ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮

During the normal school hours, Tobio, Tanaka and the others had fallen or nearly fallen asleep during class, doing their best to take notes until lunch time came around, with students in the same or different mingling and chatting with each other, eating their food or drinking things that came from the vending machine or their own lunches.

Erika walked through the crowded hallways as she avoided the eyes everywhere of the crowds, clutching the handles of her backpack as the heels of her school shoes clicked on the ground as she was quickly going outside to meet with Shoyo and Sugawara, to help the shorter male with his receives and give more advice to improve his skills.

But as she kept on walking, the blonde girl didn't even realize that she lost focus until she had suddenly bumped into a tall and somewhat muscly figure.

"Oh I'm sorry", she quickly apologized as she snapped back into reality before looking up, "Oh, it's okay, oh hey Erika", the person responded back to her, turning to show their face with a sweet friendly smile. "Oh hey Daichi", she looked up at and greeted the boys volleyball team captain as he stood in front of her.

"Oh Erika, there is something I wanted to ask you", the captain spoke as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck and his cheeks having a small tint of pink as he looked at her, "Oh, what is it Daichi?", Erika asked as she turned to face him.

"Oh you and Kageyama, is there anything that can stop him from being so aggressive or anything as a setter and teammate?", the captain sighed in defeat as he looked at the once known female volleyball nationals champion for advice as he himself didn't know to deal with the grumpy and angry setter at the moment anymore.

"Oh Kageyama huh?", Erika sighed softly as she leaned her curvaceous body against the wall, with her head facing up towards the ceiling, "I don't know either. Last time I saw him he was never this aggressive or angry before, I'm not sure why's doing this but maybe I can talk to him to see why's he acting this way if you want", the blonde offered as she looked back at the captain.

"If you could talk to him I would appreciate that", the brunette male smiled softly as he looked at Erika, "But I also thought, since the first day of practice i noticed you were quite good at teaching and guiding the other players in the team", the captain smiled softly as his rich chocolate orbs stared at Erika, "I was wondering if you'd like to join the club, as like some kind of coach maybe even team manager if you wish too"

The offer itself sounded very flattering to Erika, hearing them coming out of the captains words but hesitation filled her mind as she looked up at him, "Thanks for the offer, but I'm not sure. On the match on Saturday, I'll give you my answer then. How does that sound?"

The captain smiled softly towards Erika, understanding her situation and whatever choice she would make in the end, "Oh of course, sounds good"

Erika's eyes widened slightly in realization a thought crossed her mind, "Oh shit, I should be heading out. See you later Daichi", a small smile crawled onto the blonde girl's lips before she started to pick up the pace in her walking to head outside the school to meet up with Shoyo and Sugawara.

For a second, even just a millisecond, Daichi felt Erika's smile starting to permanently implant itself in his mind making his heart skip a beat as he stood still, having his thoughts being filled with her smile nonstop.

A soft yawn escaped Erika's lips as she didn't even see Kageyama walking past her, drinking a carton of milk as he watched her shiny blonde locks bumping and waving naturally while her sunny brown eyes weren't even focusing on reality anymore as she continued on walking before she opened the door and walked out to the path that lead her to the vending machine, her ears were greeted with Shoyo's voice as he was speaking to Sugawara, even though she didn't hear the rest of this conversation.

"Anyway, let's do some receives", she heard the third year speaking as he and the shorter yet jumpier first year agreed and they continued to practice their receives together.

"Hey Hinata and Suga, sorry that I'm so late", the blonde smiled sweetly as she walked up towards them.

Both third year and first ears had their eyes locked on her as she slowly walked up towards the both of them, "Hey Koume, it's fine don't worry about it", the silver haired male smiled softly, "Yeah, let's practice together", the first year smiled brightly as the three of them started to practice in receives.

"Here, move your arms outward when receiving", Erika instructed as she took the tangerine haired male's arms and positioned them before having him move his forearms facing the ball.

"Oh sure", a soft blush tinted Shoyo's cheeks as he swore that he could feel small sparks of electricity gliding gently on his skin with even just Erika's mere touch. Oh how he wanted more of it, to even just have her hold him like this was enough to set the electricity in his brain and body starting to short-circuit.

"Here, now try again", Erika smiled sweetly towards Shoyo as she held the ball in her hands, letting him follow both the advice from the third year setter and the young nationals champion before she bounced the ball in his direction, letting him receive the ball as it bounced from his forearms and into the air.

The progress Shoyo was making caused the blonde to smile brightly as she looked at him, "Wow, you're doing really good Hinata", she praised the first year as Sugawara set him another ball, letting him receive it again.

Little did the three know down there, that Kageyama was watching the both of them from the window another story above them. His dark blue gems watching Erika through the window while his lips were still sucking on the straw sticking into the carton of milk. His heart fluttered in how happy she looked in teaching and playing volleyball with Shoyo and Sugawara, how he wished he was down there with her right here and now.

He could feel his heart starting to beat at an erratic pace while a small tiny of pink dusted his cheeks, this feeling of butterflies in his heart and stomach would always come back to him whenever she touched his hand, gave him one of her warm and engulfing hugs, laughed or talked to him joyously, or even spent time with him.

It was a mystery in why he felt this way, but something told him he wanted to be with Erika and more than just friends.

But what does that mean really?

✮ ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮

As time passed by, it was soon the end of the school day.

Erika yawned softly as she stood outside the school by the same path that would lead to the boys volleyball team gymnasium, hearing the boys counting inside the gymnasium while doing their workout routines.

The offer that Daichi gave her during lunch time had still stuck to her mind, but accepting it or not was still battling itself in her mind. It's not that she didn't want to join a volleyball club again or stop playing it, she loved the sport with all her heart since she was a child but after the betrayal of her friends in nationals and her adoptive parents abuse whenever it came to the sports, it was going to bring her more pain than joy at this point in her life.

The blonde heard the metal doors of the school opening as she turned to see Shoyo running out to the door and standing on the metal pavement path that lead to the forbidden doors of the gymnasium which he was eager to enter in but knew he couldn't for the time being.

"Oh hey Shoyo", she greeted her new friend with a smile making the orange haired male smile brightly, "Oh hey Eri, what brings you here?"

The question itself made the blonde come to a halt, she couldn't tell him she was purposely staying at school and watching the boys play volleyball just to avoid being beaten up or insulted by her adoptive mother and father at him. She couldn't go home at this point but she barely knew anyone in this school besides Tobio.

"Oh I just was thinking of finding a club to join but I'm not sure, I was offered by the captain to join the boys volleyball team as a potential manager or mini coach, so I'm still thinking into it", Erika ran her digits through her long thick golden ringlets, while her beautiful contagious smile was plastered onto the orange male's face.

"That would be so cool!", he exclaimed, "Please, we would love to have you join our volleyball club"

The words and excitement coming from the jumpy tangerine player sounded genuine, Erika could not hear nor sense any ill will from him and it kind of made her feel somewhat happy that she was now friends with someone like him.

"Hey", they heard another masculine voice starting to speak, letting them turn to see Tobio as his eyes faced Erika and then Shoyo, "Let's go"

"What? Sorry, where are we going now?", Shoyo asked as he started to follow Tobio while he was walking away from the building.

"Well it's not like we can play volleyball here, can we?", the raven haired male glared slightly at the tangerine male, "I found a practice spot"

Shoyo's hazel eyes widened slightly at the news he heard the news coming from Kageyama while a small smile grew on Erika's face as she looked at her old friend who was starting to walk to the location.

"Really? Where is it?", Shoyo smiled brightly as he asked Tobio and started to follow behind his tracks while Erika followed along with the tangerine male to help him practice as usual.

"Wow! Great job Kageyama!"

"Oh my god! You're so annoying!"

"What?! What do you mean?!"

✮ ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮

The sky painted with a dark orange and yellow hues over the pale blue skies, panting the scenery of the grassy soccer fields that Erika and her two bickering friends were practicing. The blonde sighed softly as she declined several calls from the people she worked for in different occupations before paying attention to the mentoring and practice session with Tobio and Shoyo.

"Be aware of your feet and your hands!", Tobio shouted at Shoyo as he threw a receive at him, but the ball hit his arms and flew in a different direction.

"Hey! I need you to focus!"

"I know I know!", Shoyo answered, being annoyed and frustrated with Kageyama's rough teaching methods and arrogant attitude as he ran to retrieve the ball, "We're going to win this match and get let into the gym, and then we'll play for real"

"Come on Tobio, you don't have to be so hard on Shoyo", Erika's golden eyes glared at her friend before turning her attention to Shoyo.

"Oh right, I forgot. If we lose on Saturday you don't ever get to be the setter", Shoyo looked at Tobio with a blank smile on his face, while the raven haired male yelled out at him impatience and infuriation, "That's why I need you to focus!"

With practice carrying on for sometime, with never ending receives and Erika giving advice to Shoyo, the ball eventually landed up in a tree from one of Tobio's harsh passes that went too high.

"I told you, you gotta ease up a little when we're practicing outside", the shorter orange haired male climbed up the tree as he glared at the raven haired setter who grabbed a big tall stick and reached out to get the ball out of the tree.

"If you could receive worth a damn, I wouldn't have too!", the raven haired male shouted as he jumped up slightly to hit the ball with the end of the stick.

"Tobio! Stop that!", Erika shouted as she grabbed a stick herself before climbing up the tree and reaching to get the ball.

"Pardon me, your majesty", Shoyo turned his head to the other side, mumbling to himself.

Unfortunately this was caught by Erika's sharp ears making her eyes widen as she looked at Shoyo and Tobio's dark blue gems narrow in the tangerine haired male's way.

"What?"

The sudden response caused Shoyo to freeze in realization as his one hand covered his mouth while mumbling, "uh oh", under his breath as the ball fell from the tree off of his head and into Tobio's hands.

"Tch"

Is all Tobio could respond with as he walked away, holding the ball before Erika and Shoyo both started to climb down the tree.

"Um Shoyo", Erika turned her head towards Shoyo before he looked at her, "Maybe you shouldn't be calling him that"

The orange haired male looked down at the ground, having Erika's warning implanted in his head, before turning his head up and his bright brown eyes glared at Tobio.

"What's with him? He doesn't like being King Of The Court? I think that's a pretty cool nickname"

A small frown crawled onto the blonde's lips as she looked at Shoyo's face while he was lost in thought, before following behind on Tobio's tracks.

With his mind still lost in thought, Tobio turned his head and glared at the shorter orange haired male before calling out to him, "Hey! Pull your head out!". This snapped Shoyo back into reality as he looked at Tobio.

"So anyway, what do you think the first years we're going to be up against are like?", the orange haired male asked Tobio and Erika with genuine curiosity, "They can't be tougher than the upper class men"

"Well I heard one of them are pretty tall, like six feet", Erika looked at Shoyo answering his question, while Tobio furrowed his eyes as he held up the volleyball in one hand, "It makes no difference to me how skilled they are, we'll defeat them no matter what they're like"

"You're right! That's exactly what I was going to say!", Shoyo shouted in excitement as he pointed towards Tobio, before he turned away from him.

"Tch"

"Don't you "tch" me!"

"Okay, lower your hips and body down slightly", Erika instructed Shoyo, before he nodded his head and called out to Tobio with his usual bright and optimistic attitude and smile, "One more time!"

But with that call, the ball aimed right into his face making the orange haired male fall backwards as the ball flew through the air momentarily before hitting the ground.

"Shoyo, are you okay?", Erika called out as she kneeled down to help the orange haired male off of the ground.

"You've got to learn to stop receiving with your face!"

With nighttime arriving so quickly, Erika could only feel relief and fear at the same time as she knew she would avoiding home for a few hours but she couldn't stay out forever and at least Etsuko and Kameko would be at another friends house as usual or locked in their rooms to avoid their adoptive parents wrath.

The ball had reached the ground, making the tangerine male dive to the floor to grab it while Tobio stared down at him, being quite surprised at how he threw the ball back at him.

"Okay", Shoyo's voice became raspy from the exhaustion that he was feeling before looking at Tobio with a look of determination, "One more try"

"You ready?", the jet black haired male as he used his forearm to wipe a sweat from his brow, looking towards the shorter male in front of him. "Yeah!", Shoyo answered as he put his arms together, positioning himself for a receive.

Erika looked at the both of them, being quite surprised at the progress the both of them had already made with each other right now, being different from earlier this morning, earlier during their practice and even yesterday. A small smile crawled onto her lips as she felt quite proud of Tobio and the progress that he making right now in working with Shoyo and how Shoyo's skills were already growing and he was getting a little closer to reaching his full potential.

Tobio set the ball into the air, "Behind you!", he called out as Shoyo started to run after the ball, watching how it was close to landing on his hands.

But all of a sudden it was stopped by the hand of an even taller person, causing Shoyo to freeze on the spot in confusion while the person looked at the both players with a mocking smirk.

"Are you guys seriously practicing out here?", the masculine mocking tone and voice of the same person held the ball in his hands, as he moved his head so he and Shoyo faced each other. He had short scruffy blonde hair with green and hazel mixed eyes covered with glasses, his height reaching somewhere close to six feet was quite notorious but the one thing that stuck out to Erika was the smug look on his face that matched with his cocky and confident smirk.

"You must be the first years who made all that trouble on the first day", the blonde male asked as a another male with freckles/acne dots on his cheeks, scruffy dark green hair which was a bit longer than the blond male's and a sweet innocent smile on his face which occasionally had a smug smirk that would try to copy the blond male's mannerisms and personality traits with admiration and worship.

"T-shirts out here? Aren't you cold?", the green haired male asked as he quirked his brow asking with a smile but also somewhat concern and curiosity.

Being taken back by their surprising height for a second, Shoyo soon snapped back into reality as he started to jump up to try and receive the ball. "Give it back! Hey!", he shouted out trying to get the ball but the blond male lifted it up even higher to keep it out of the tangerine male's reach.

"Shouldn't you elementary schoolers be home at this hour?", with that mocking and teasing question coming from the blond male as he turned his head down to face the tangerine male, who seemed to be infuriated by this, "Who are you supposed to be?!"

"Oh no offense", Erika walked up to the tall blond male, surprising him and the green haired male as she stood on the tip of her toes and grabbed the ball out of his hand, "Shouldn't you be acting your age and not your shoe size?", she asked him as she gave him a look of annoyance as she didn't feel like dealing with people's arrogance like the blond's for the moment.

His green orbs looked at her famous face for a moment before clicking his tongue in irritation before looking back at both Tobio and Shoyo who were glaring at him. "I guess you're the other new first year players", Tobio spoke out his dark sapphire hues narrowed, glaring at the blond male who wasn't even phased with this as a cocky and confident smirk still remained on his face.

"Quiet!", Shoyo shouted to Tobio as he looked at him angrily, but Tobio payed no mind to the shorter male as he looked at the other two, observing and examining them for a second.

"I'll do the talking!"

"Question", Tobio spoke out as he looked at the blond, "How tall are you?"

With that question being asked, the blond quickly snatched the ball from Erika as she wasn't looking.

"Hey!", both Erika and Shoyo shouted, with Erika glaring at the blond and Shoyo glaring at Tobio.

"Glad you asked", the green haired male smirked confidently as he looked at Tobio, "Tsuki happens to be 6.2, he's almost six foot three", the freckle/acne cheeked male spoke about his friend in a bragging manner making born Shoyo and "Tsuki" look back at him.

"Six foot two?!"

"What's the point of you bragging about how tall I am, Tadashi?", the blond male looked at his friend, being rather annoyed as his friend gave him an apologetic look, "Right, sorry Tsuki"

The blond male smirked softly in confidence and cockiness as he looked back at Tobio, "You're Kageyama from Kitagawa First, right? Tch. A star player like you in a school like this?"

The raven haired male glared at the blond, being agitated with his cocky behavior and slightly mentioning the past.

"So?"

"Look pal!", Shoyo shouted at Tsuki, making both his and Tobio's attention avert to the shorter male, "hm?"

"We are not going to lose to you! Do you understand me?"

The challenge coming from the orange haired male didn't even phase him, seeing how sunny eyes were glaring up at him and put his position in a defensive stance to prepare himself for a fight.

"Isn't that cute", Tsuki asked in a mocking tone as he held the ball to his head, making the orange haired male stand still and slouch his body while his face was filled with annoyance and defeat.

"I didn't realize that little skirmish actually meant something to you", the blond male spoke in a mocking tone towards Tobio as he bounced the ball multiple times in his hand, "We couldn't care less about it"

"We're not concerned with winning or losing but if it's that important to you two", Tsukki gave them a mocking smirk as he stared at both Tobio and Shoyo before closing his eyes and giving off a fake sweet innocent smile, "We'll just throw the game"

"What?!", Shoyo exclaimed in anger and confusion.

"Fine", Tobio gave him a look of annoyance and unemotional look while narrowing his eyes towards the blond, "I don't care if you throw it or work yourself to death, cuz I'm still going to win on Saturday"

"You mean "we" right?!"

The conflict and confrontation between both groups caused Erika to sigh in annoyance and feel the intense air that was too similar to her life at home become too much for her as she didn't want to deal with it, but she just wanted to get some answers first.

"What are you two doing here and what is your purpose?", the blonde asked as she quickly put her phone back into her pocket, before folding her arms and knitting her brows together as she looked at both Tadashi and Tsuki.

But the only thing that she and Tobio got in response was a short laugh from the blond male, "So confident, well that's the king for ya", he stared at Tobio and then turned his attention towards Erika, "and you're Ms Nationals in the world volleyball, aren't you?". Erika could only keep her facial expressions to seem unfazed as she nod her head in response as she looked at the blond, "Yeah and why do you ask?"

"Hey! Don't call me that!", Tobio shouted to Tsuki, becoming angry at not only his old nickname but the way he was also starting to mention Erika's unbecoming in Nationals.

"Ha! I knew!", Tsuki replied, leaving the setter to become even angrier as he looked at him, "huh?"

"Rumor has it you lose your cool every time somebody brings up your old nickname", a cocky smirk plastered itself on Tsuki's face as his voice had a taunting tone in it.

"But who wouldn't want to be the King Of The Court? I mean it really suits you, right your highness?"

Tobio was left in standing anger, gritting his teeth while Shoyo snuck behind him, knowing what the end result would be.

"Hey! What is your problem?", Erika's sunny looked up at Tsuki before Tobio could even get the question out, glaring at him as she was prepared to defend her old friend at any given circumstances, but Tsuki payed no mind to her as he kept on looking at Tobio with a taunting yet innocent looks she started to walk up to Tobio.

The moments of silence felt intense, as Tobio looked up at the blond with anger and agitation while Tsuki looked down at him with cockiness and a taunting feel to the setter before standing behind him.

"I saw you, y'know", the taller male replied while holding the ball in his hand, "At the finals"

The mention of it caused Tobio's dark blue eyes to widen in the haunting memories of his past as Tsuki kept on bouncing the ball in his hand.

"I still can't believe your teammates put up with all those selfish sets you used to toss up, I know I wouldn't", Tsuki shrugged his shoulders for a moment before he continued speaking, "Oh, so that's why you're here. I bet they finally got sick of you"

Those words brought haunting memories of that fateful day to the setter's mind, remembering how no one was there to spike the ball in for the win and how they just left him and his tyrant leadership skills empty.

Erika's sunny eyes widened in realization. The truth she denied for so long finally revealed itself. He had changed, and he became a dictator.

Tobio gritted his teeth and narrow his eyes before shooting his body in Tsuki's direction, with his hand balling into a fist as he grabbed the color of his school shirt and blazer.

"Tsuki!", Tadashi called out in concern but also to stop his friend from going too far to prevent another fight between the both of them.

The setter's dark blue orbs glared at the blond male, while Tsuki looked down at him with a smug smirk on his face, showing that he was satisfied with the result of the previous king and dictator losing his cool and revealing the truth all on it's own.

"Hey! Tobio! Calm down!", Erika called out to her friend as she ran up to him, trying to get her friend to cool his head as she held his arm while looking up at him.

"Please Tobio, this is not worth it", her soothing angelic voice brought somewhat a calm to the storm in the setter's mind, his dark blue hues looking down at Erika's golden ones before letting go of the blond male's collar.

A swirl of confusion ran through Shoyo mind as he wandered what was up with the setter and why he didn't say anything or fight back against the blond and his lacky, internally rooting and cheering for him to do so as he watched him grab his bag and sling the straps over his shoulders.

"We're leaving"

The actions and words itself left Shoyo and Erika speechless as Tsuki bent down to the ground, holding the ball in his hand once again.

"Uh! What?! Wait!"

"Running off?", Tsuki asked in a taunting tone, "Guess the king's not a threat after all"

This caused the former nationals star and the shorter male to both glare the blond as Tobio kept on walking away.

"I hope his majesty puts up more of a fight on Saturday", a smug look still remained on his face before throwing the ball up into the air intending to catch it, but only to have Shoyo jump into the air and catch the ball into his own hands.

The impeccable sight of the jump itself made Erika and Tsuki's eyes widen in surprise as they stared up at him, flying in the air before landing on the ground with both feet and his hands clutching onto the ball.

"Would you just shut up about the stupid king?!", the orange haired male turned his head as he glared at Tsuki ferociously, "I'm here too! You have no idea what I'm capable of!"

Tobio had his head turned to the scene and Tsuki's green and brown mixed hues looking down at him with a glare turned into a look of mock and ridicule, "Oh yeah?"

The look made Shoyo back away from the blond in intimidation for a second, "What's that look for anyway buddy? Are you trying to start something with me?, the nervous orange haired male shouted as he raised his fist into the air while still staring at Tsuki in anger.

The blond male let out a sigh of defeat as his head faced the ground, before giving Shoyo an innocent look and fake friendly smile, "There's no need to argue, alright? Let's all just enjoy playing some volleyball together, it's just a game right?"

The act the blond male put up made Erika scoff as her sunny brown eyes glared sharply towards him.

"What's that supposed to mean?!", the orange haired male shouted as he carried on gripping the ball in the palm of his hands.

"Exactly, what it sounds like. Bye", the blond pivoted his heel on the grass ground as he turned his back towards the tangerine male, "Hey not so fast! You never told me who you are!"

"I'm Kei Tsukishima, year 1 class 4", the blond introduced himself properly as he looked at the tangerine male along with his friend, "I'm Tadashi Yamaguchi"

"As of today, we are officially your new teammates. Even if it doesn't feel like it", Kei looked at the both of them, "Anyway, I'm looking forward to his majesty's royal sets", he finished speaking and started to walk away with Tadashi.

"Later"

Both Tobio and Shoyo stared at them, their eyes furrowed with anger and irritation while Erika had a blank look on her face, taking notes of both Kei and Tadashi's personality and what they would be like in a volleyball match.

"What is their deal? Those two are some majorly buttwads", Shoyo spoke silently to himself before turning his head to face Tobio, "We should show those pukes who's boss"

A sudden ringtone interrupted the intense moment before Erika snapped back into reality, realizing that it was her phone ringing before taking it out of her pocket and seeing the person who was calling her.

Kuma Koume

'Oh shit'

Erika's eyes opened in realization, seeing that she missed out on all of her work for the day and knowing what her adoptive parent's reactions would be when she got home.

"I'm sorry you two, but I have to leave", Erika quickly spoke as she grabbed her backpack and sling the strap over her shoulder before looking at the two with a smile on her face, "See you tomorrow and don't work too late, we need you to have energy for tomorrow's practice!"

"See you Erika!", the orange haired male smiled happily as he waved his hand at her before her legs started to run down the street with as much speed as they could carry, seeing Kei and Tadashi staring momentarily at her near the gate, their eyes widened in astonishment at the speed she could run.

With a few passing street lights and houses, Erika soon reached the road that would lead to the Koume mansion she and her sisters lived in and in a few minutes of determination and her super speedy, the blonde firm reached the gates and let them open before she walked in.

'Please don't be at the front door, please don't be at the front door'

The former nationals star begged and prayed to herself as she stopped running and stood in front of the front door. Her shaking hands reaching to open it with her whole body trembling in fear of what could happen if she just entered that door like a normal person and what her mother or father's reactions could be.

"Oh god that brat!"

A familiar voice screamed out, making Erika jump on the spot as she heard the door handle starting to turn and seeing it open faster than to her liking, now being face to face with a look of anger and bitterness washed all over her adoptive mothers face.

"You little bitch", the mother growled out as she grabbed Erika's wrist roughly before dragging her into her house and slamming the front door closer.

"Where were you?!", Kuma shouted out as she slapped Erika's cheek, "You were supposed to be at the studio modeling and Ms. Sanko told me you weren't coming in today!", the older woman shouted at her oldest daughter, before throwing her to the ground and connecting her fists and feet to her body.

Erika could only let out a cry and a few whimpers as she felt the painful impact starting to overwhelm her body, trying to use her arms to shield her face and to crouch her body so she could shield her stomach from the beatings.

"Answer me!", Kuma growled out ferociously as she gripped onto Erika's long blond locks, dragging her face up to make her face her.

Tears fell down Erika's rosy yet bruised and reddened cheeks as her golden eyes faced her adoptive mother, "I-I was helping a friend p-practice volleyball, I-I'll be joining the club as a potential manager o-or coach", Erika stuttered as she felt sobs escaping her throat but still bravely faced her adoptive mother as her sharp onyx eyes kept on glaring at her.

"You think being surrounded by a bunch of boys will get you validation or make you better?! You're wrong!", Kuma shouted out angrily as she threw Erika to the floor, "Nobody loves you! No one ever will! How could anyone love you anyways, you little disappointment!", Kuma bellowed out, grabbing a glass cup and throwing it onto the spotless white marble kitchen floor.

The sound of the impact and glass flying everywhere caused Erika to flinch momentarily, making her quickly get up from the floor and run to her bedroom before her mother would become even more violent with her anger.

After reaching her own bedroom shorty, Erika shut the door and locked it up so she wouldn't have to face Kuma anymore for the night. With her body laying down on the ground and against the door, she could hear her adoptive mothers screams of anger and shouting so many hurtful names and insults towards her.

This wasn't a home, it was a prison.

After letting out a sigh of relief, the blonde could feel tears of shock and fear falling down her cheeks as she stood up and wiped the tears away with her hands before walking into her bathroom. With removing her school uniform, Erika stared at her bruised and batter body and face all caused by her adoptive mother's beatings and physical abuse as well as the intense training from the whole week.

The child star started to wash off the makeup from her face as she looked in the mirror, Kuma's words and insults replaying themselves in her mind nonstop like a broken record.

Trying to block the thoughts out of her mind, Erika put her earbuds into her ear and laid down on her bed, listening to calming melody of Melanie Martinez's voice and the creative sounds of her melodies that she could never get enough of.

It will be all okay. Things will get better.

That's what she told herself and everyone else, but in truth. She didn't even know it for sure.

✮ ✮ ✮ ✮ ✮

Days of intense and nonstop practice had passed by, leaving Erika, Shoyo, Tobio, Sugawara and Tanaka sleepy during class, breaks and normal practice but fired up when playing the actual sports with excitement.

There were bumps on the road, but with Erika's help Shoyo was able to overcome them and learn new tricks and techniques as she was also teaching Tobio, Sugawara and Tanaka, even the other guys during practice whenever she decided to stick around for the sake of it.

It wasn't easy, but Shoyo could admit that he was having a lot of fun playing with Erika. She was calm, gentle and patient with him whenever it came to practice, teaching him everything he needed to know and giving well rounded advice whenever needed during practice.

She really was a good and fun teacher and whenever she played volleyball, she was just a natural like Tobio Kageyama, if not even better.

When the morning of Friday arrived, Erika quickly rushed out of her mansion as she didn't feel like dealing with her adoptive mothers harsh fists and her adoptive fathers harsh words as she took Etsuko and Kameko to school earlier than usual so she could also practice with Shoyo and Tobio.

Hours had passed until Sugawara and Tanaka had arrived, watching how Shoyo could handle receives even better than last time from the training from Tobio, Erika and Sugawara, even advice from the other two during lunch breaks and after school practice outside.

The sounds of the ball bouncing against the floor, walks and Tobio's and Shoyo's forearms echoed across the gym being accompanied with Shoyo's shouts of determination, pants of exhaustion and his body hitting or sliding against the polished wooden floors. His forearms were red and stinging from the constant practice of receiving from this week and earlier that morning.

"Damn, how long have those two been back and forth like that?", Tanaka asked as he stood beside Sugawara and Erika, watching Tobio and Shoyo practicing together, "Well, I got here about fifteen minutes ago, so", the silver haired third year answered the buzzcut male.

"It's been nonstop?!", Tanaka asked as his eyes widened in surprise, with Suga nodding his head to him in return, "Wow"

"Everybody has their limits!", Tobio shouted out as he slammed the ball down with hand to Shoyo once again, letting the ball hit his reddened forearms.

"Uh! Let's take a break!", Tobio shouted out, trying to get Shoyo to go to his limit, "Not yet! It hasn't hit the floor!"

"Okay fine!", Tobio shouted out, hitting the ball once again in the tangerine male's direction but being too high for him to reach.

"That's brutal! Can he hit that?", Tanaka asked as he looked up, "Oh shit, that was too high", Erika looked at Tobio and Shoyo, wondering how they would turn the tables in the situation now.

The shorter orange haired male turned his head, his brown eyes following the ball before his exhausted body started to run after it with all the strength it had left

"Rumors have it he's had amazing athletic abilities since middle school", Suga spoke out causing Tanaka to stare at him in confusion, "But besides all that, he's got this insane thirst for victory that keeps him going"

Tobio's naturally furrowed dark blue eyes watched how Shoyo was chasing after the ball, seeing this power and determination to win no matter what and would push himself until the very end.

Shoyo suddenly dove to the floor, retrieving the ball with his hand and letting it fly into the air.

"He did it!", Tanaka shouted in surprise while Erika and Sugawara's eyes widened.

"Nice one little man!"

'He's improved so much, it's amazing'

Erika couldn't help but smile softly at her short tangerine friend playing already so well with Tobio, even though they had a brawl and conflict a few days ago. She knew full well this wouldn't be the end of their constant bickering and arguments here and there, but this was starting to look like the beginning of a new powerful combo and friendship.

The words of the other day echoed in Tobio's mind as well as other events between the both of them that happened either this week or in that match in their final year of junior high again each other as he watched the ball flying into the air and setting his hands underneath the direction it was heading into his direction, letting it fall into his hands as the setter prepared and then threw the ball into the air.

"Here we go!", Tanaka shouted, "There it is! He finally set him one!", Sugawara shouted in suite with Tanaka as their eyes widened in surprise.

Shoyo lifted his body off the gymnasium floor, panting in exhaustion as he looked up at the ball that flew in the air.

"Too bad. There's no way he's got enough strength left to spike it down", Tanaka commented as he turned his head towards Shoyo along with Sugawara.

"Wrong", Erika responded to the buzzcut male as they turned their heads to her as she didn't take her sunny brown eyes off of their practice, "From practicing with him, I learnt a lot of things"

A bright smile crawled onto the tangerine male's face as he watched the ball flying into the air, lifting his body up and heading towards the ball set straight for him. The determination and dream of finally get a ball set for him to spike was enough reason to get him off the ground as he ran towards the net and spiked the ball over, letting the ball hit and bounce off the ground on the other side.

"I gotta hand it to him. The kid can jump", Sugawara commented as a small was plastered on his and Erika's face with a look off shock on Tanaka's, "I can't believe he managed to hit that"

"If there's one thing I learnt about Hinata when I practiced with him", Erika spoke with a soft smile as she looked towards Sugawara and Tanaka, "it's that he never gives up, no matter how hard things get"

A bright goofy smile was plastered on Shoyo's face, as if there were sparkles all around him and the sun was smiling down on him.

"Check out the stupid look on his face", the buzzcut male couldn't help but laugh inwardly to himself, "So I guess getting a set must be really important to the guy, huh?", the third year spoke to himself and Tanaka, remembering that day where Shoyo shared his thoughts and feelings when practicing during lunch the other day.

Erika ran up to the orange haired male who was kneeling on the floor, coughing and panting from the constant practicing and the exhaustion that was finally getting to him.

"Hey", Tobio stood in front of him making the shorter male turn his head up to face him, "Tomorrow, we'll win". With remembering Sugawara's wise words those days, Shoyo looked up at Tobio as he furrowed his eyes and walked away from him.

"Yeah! Tell me something I don't know!", Shoyo shouted in excitement but it was soon replaced with the sound of gagging as his mouth was filled with bile that escaped from his throat as he opened his mouth and threw up on the gym floor.

"Oh god! Shoyo!", Erika lifted her friend off of the floor and leaned his overworked body on her own to support his weight.

"Oh sick!"

"Tanaka! Get some water!"

"Oh god!"

"And a bucket! And some towels!"

"And a bucket! And some towels!"

-

Holy shit!

This has literally more than 10,000 words here!

Hope you guys enjoyed this cuz I'm kind of exhausted I won't lie!

But there will be some more love interests and even kisses in the future!

👀👀👀

So who do you guys want to kiss first?!

Let me know here and it could happen one way or another!

❤️❤️❤️

See you guys in the next chapter!

Bye for now!


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